An adult wild elephant was on Wednesday killed by a superspeed train in lower Assam’s Morigaon district, forest officials here said. The NFR made it clear the incident occurred at 5 a.m. near Jagiroad, and this was not under the elephant corridor.
An NFR official said, “The incident took place at 4:52 am, and due to the early hour, the loco-pilot had limited visibility of the elephant. Incidentally, he applied brakes at the last moment.”.
Eye witnesses claimed that it have suffered severe injuries at the time of impact and in spite of trying to get up, collapsed near the tracks and died a little while later. Forest officials reacted fast and veterinarians who were called to the spot confirmed that it was killed by internal injuries, particularly to the head.
“The officials suspect the elephant might have strayed away from the herd and went into the non-forest plain area in its search for fodder. The carcass was later removed from the tracks and through their mutual efforts, laid to rest on the outskirts of the forest area the same evening.