Train engine confiscated by forest officials in Assam for killing wild elephants

Forest officials in Assam have seized a railway locomotive for mowing down a female elephant and her calf in September. The elephants were killed by a speeding goods train at Lumding in Hojai district of Assam on the intervening night of September 26 and September 27. The accident took place near Pathorkhola railway station, when the elephants were trying to cross the railway tracks. “This is probably the first such instance in the country, when a railway locomotive has been seized in connection with death on train tracks,” said MK Yadava chief wildlife warden, Assam.

On Tuesday, forest officials seized the engine from the Banunimaidan locomotive shed of North-eastern Frontier Railway (NFR) in Guwahati. Earlier, rail authorities had placed the pilot of the train and his assistant under suspension pending an internal probe. “Provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 will be imposed against railway authorities. The seized locomotive will be used as evidence in the case,” Yadava said.Forest officials said the impact of the accident was such that the one-year-old calf was dragged for nearly a kilometre (km) before the engine came to a grinding halt.

“The area, where the accident took place, falls in an elephant corridor and railway authorities were cautioned earlier that trains should restrict their speed to below 40 km per hour,” said Pulak Choudhury, divisional forest officer, Lumding.“An internal inquiry by railways has revealed that the train was running at around 60 km per hour in the area and that caused the accident. We have filed a police complaint and are also conducting a separate investigation ourselves,” he added. Despite speed restrictions and meetings between forest and railway officials to prevent elephant deaths on railway tracks, such incidents keep recurring in Assam.