Jumbo dies 48 hrs after being hit by Rajdhani Exp in Jorhat

Guwahati: After battling for survival for 48 hours since she was hit by a Rajdhani Express in Mariani on Sunday night, the female elephant succumbed to her injuries early on Wednesday.
Another elephant and a calf died on the spot after the collision. The fresh death has taken the total number of such fatalities in the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) zone to six so far this year.
The injured elephant was limping around the railway tracks and later fell into a nearby river. DFO (Jorhat) Nandha Kumar said, “She was pulled out of the river with the help of a crane on Tuesday afternoon and shifted to the Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary for treatment. Despite the best efforts of a team of veterinarians, she could not be saved.”
Though the post-mortem report is still awaited, the veterinarians pointed to internal bleeding and haemorrhage as the cause of her death. “The impact of the collision with the train was massive. The veterinarians could not stop the internal bleeding,” a forest official said, adding that the elephant was taken to the Hollongapar sanctuary with the hope of reuniting her with her herd. The accident spot is about 6km from their habitat.
Meanwhile, the forest department has expedited the probe to ascertain whether the loco pilots slowed down the train in the elephant corridor where the accident occurred.
Jorhat DFO’s office had shot off a letter to the NFR, seeking details of the train movement at the time of the collision. Sources said the Railways has appointed an investigation officer to probe into the train speed and other related aspects.
NFR CPRO Sabyasachi De said the Kharikatia area in Mariani, where the accident took place, has not yet been officially notified as an elephant corridor. “Considering frequent elephant movement in the area, we had instructed the loco pilots to maintain a maximum speed of 50kmph. This despite the fact that the forest department never showed any urgency to notify the location as an elephant corridor where extra caution should be exercised during train movement,” he added.