Seven elephants were killed and one was injured after being hit by a Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express in Assam’s Hojai district early Saturday, leading to disruption in railway services and fuelling a call for effective coordination between states and the railways to avoid a repeat of such tragedies.
This is the first major train-hit mishap in Assam since 2018, when five elephants were killed in Lumding, which was then in Nagaon district but falls under Hojai district now.
Of the seven elephants killed in a herd of around 100, three were adults, and four were calves. The injured calf has been sent to the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation Centre at Kaziranga for treatment.
There was no human casualty or injuries to passengers. The impact of the hit could be gauged from the fact that an elephant was dragged over 300mt, according to sources. The elephants were buried after post-mortems.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma directed the forest department to conduct a “detailed enquiry on this deeply disturbing accident and take steps to further secure our wildlife corridors, particularly during low visibility seasons”. The mishap site is about 126km from the capital, Guwahati.
The Northeast Frontier Railway said in a statement that the “unfortunate” mishap took place at 2.17am in the Jamunamukh-Kampur section under its Lumding division, where train number 20507 down Sairang-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, “dashed with elephants, resulting in derailment of the locomotive and five coaches of the train”.
The passengers of the affected coaches have been accommodated in the vacant berths in other rakes. After detaching, the affected coaches left the site for Guwahati at 6.11am, the statement said.
Helpline numbers were activated at Guwahati station, and senior railway officials rushed to the site to take remedial measures. The affected route will be restored by Saturday, an official said.
The NF Railway said the incident occurred at a place which is not a designated elephant corridor. “The loco pilot, on observing the herd of elephants, applied emergency brakes. However, elephants dashed into the train. Trains scheduled to pass through that section are being diverted through the UP line. Restoration works are on,” the statement said.