Speeding train kills jumbo in Hojai’s elephant corridor

Guwahati: A train speeding through an elephant corridor hit a jumbo at Hawaipur in Assam’s Hojai district on Thursday night, making it the 26th such fatality in the state since 2018.
Forest officials said the wild elephant was run over by a cement-laden freight train when it was trying to cross the tracks. Both loco pilots fled the spot after the accident. It took place despite the forest department alerting the Railways about the movement of elephants in the area.
Sabyasachi De, CPRO of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), said, “A departmental inquiry has been initiated to find out why the loco pilots did not reduce the speed of the train despite the forest department’s alarm call. The speed limit in the elephant corridor was fixed at 45 km/hour.”
The departmental inquiry will require the two loco pilots’ statements on how, why and under what conditions did the incident take place, the CPRO said.
He claimed that there has been a decrease in elephant deaths on railway tracks because of the various initiatives, including speed limit control and use of a device that amplifies the buzz of swarming honeybees to drive away elephants from the tracks, of the Northeast Frontier Railway.
“The number of elephant deaths due to train hits has come down to four this year from 11 in 2018,” De said, adding that such accidents were reported from Hojai, Jorhat, Nagaon, Kamrup (Metro), Kamrup, Lakhimpur and Karbi Anglong districts over the last three years.
Meanwhile, MK Yadav, the principal chief conservator of forests and head of the forest force, said, “We are awaiting the post-mortem report of the elephant to ascertain its age.”
He said the movement of elephants in the area is common as the Lumding reserve forest lies next to it. Herds of wild elephants often roam about there in search of food. At times, they meet with such fatal accidents.
Four years ago five elephants, including three calves, were killed after being hit by a passenger train. While four jumbos had died on the spot, the fifth one succumbed to the injuries later.