Three Elephants Killed On Railway Track By Speeding Train In Odisha's Keonjhar

In a tragic incident at least three elephants, including two calves, were killed after being hit by a goods train in Odisha's Keonjhar district.

The accident took place near Bansapani under the Joda forest section of Champua range when a herd of around 20 jumbos were crossing railway tracks at around 7.30 pm on Thursday.

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One elephant calf died on the spot, while a female pachyderm and another calf succumbed to their injuries on Friday morning.

Following the accident, the elephant herd prevented forest officials from carrying out rescue operations.

Railways was informed about elephant movement

"The forest department personnel were monitoring the elephant herd movement throughout the day. The railway authorities were also informed about presence of the elephants there and speed of the train was contained at 25kmph. The accident took place due to darkness," a senior forest official told PTI.

Activists expressed concern over the frequent elephant deaths due to train accidents in the mineral-rich Keonjhar district.

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As many as 11 elephants were killed due to train accidents and four others due to road mishaps, while 13 jumbos died of electrocution in the last eight years, they said.

36 elephants have died in Odisha in the last 10 years in accidents involving collisions with trains.

Elephants continue to die on tracks

This is not a problem that is limited to Odisha.

Railway collisions were the second-largest reason for the unnatural deaths of elephants.

A total of 186 elephants were killed after being hit by trains across India between 2009-10 and 2020-21, according to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India.

BCCL

Assam accounted for the highest number of elephant casualties on railway tracks (62), followed by West Bengal (57), and Odisha (27).

27 elephants were killed in 10 states after being hit by trains in 2012-13, the highest ever recorded.

In December 2021, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had said that elephants continue to die on railway tracks across India due to the forest department as well as the Railways not following norms set up to prevent such deaths.

BCCL

According to the CAG, most of the elephants were killed in locations that were identified as ¡®elephant passages¡¯.

Railway's plan bee, that did not work

In 2017, the Railways had come up with an innovative solution to keep the elephants away from the railway tracks by using bees.

BCCL

However, data showed that this has not helped much in preventing elephant deaths on tracks as 48 pachyderms and 188 other animals killed by running trains since 2019.

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) registered the highest number of elephant deaths ¡ª four in 2019, six in 2020, five in 2021 and two so far in 2022, taking the toll to 17 in the said period.

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