Jamshedpur: An express train travelling at 110kmph hit three elephants in the wee hours of Tuesday somewhere between Gidhni and Chakulia, around 90km from here, killing all the animals and disrupting services between Howrah and Jamshedpur for over eight hours till about 9am.
Three local trains had to be cancelled and several trains, including the Barbil Janshatabdi and Ispat express, reached Jamshedpur late because of the accident that has once again highlighted the communication gap between forest officials and railways about movement of animals.
Railway sources said Howrah-Mumbai Jnaneswari Super Deluxe Express hit the elephants at 1.30am while crossing Kanimohali passenger halt under the Kharagpur division of South Eastern Railway (SER).
"The train was passing through Jhargram forest range at the time of the mishap. We had no intimation from the forest department about movement of an elephant herd from Jharkhand to Bengal. There has been no such alert in the section for the last two months. Hence, the train was moving at its normal speed of 110kmph," said SER chief public relations officer Sanjay Ghosh.
He said in the event of an alert, the railways would have ensured that the speed of trains passing through the stretch was restricted to 40kmph. Bit Jhargram DFO N. Rao told The Telegraph that the area where the accident occurred was not a part of the usual elephant corridor.
All the three adult elephants, one of them a female, were moving close to the tracks. After being hit, they collapsed on the tracks. After the accident, the train stopped a little distance away as the driver had applied emergency brakes. No passenger was injured.
Ghosh said the engine of the Mumbai-bound train was partially damaged and later replaced with a diesel locomotive. Services on the Howrah-Mumbai line were suspended till about 9.45am. However, movement of trains on the opposite direction was unaffected.
After receiving information about the accident, officials of Jhargram forest range and Kharagpur railway division rushed to the spot and started operations to clear the tracks using heavy earth movers.
The three local trains that had to be cancelled are the Kharagpur-Jhargram Passenger, Kharagpur-Dhanbad Passenger and Jhargram-Midnapore Passenger.
The Howrah-Barbil Janshatabdi Express was delayed by more than an hour and reached Tatanagar station at 11am. The Howrah-Titlagarh Ispat Express was also delayed by over one and half hours when it reached Tatanagar at 11.25am. Several other long distance trains, including the Howrah-Ahmedabad Express, were also delayed.
In April, four elephants, including a calf, were killed when the speeding Howrah-Mumbai Mail hit them at an unmanned railway crossing at Bagdihi forest range in Jharsuguda under Chakradharpur division of South Eastern Railway.
