Train mows down jumbo

The portion of the tracks where the elephant was knocked down. Picture by Biplab Basak

TT, Alipurduar/Jalpaiguri: A wild elephant was mowed down by a goods train between Nagrakata and Chalsa stations in the Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary on Sunday night.

This is the first time that an elephant was run over by a train in north Bengal in the past two years.

While the railways said the driver of the goods train couldn't spot the elephant because of fog, the forest department said high speed had caused the death.

After the accident, traffic was disrupted on the Alipurduar Junction-Siliguri Junction for around five hours.

"The goods train was moving towards Siliguri from Alipurduar and suddenly near 68/69 pillar, one sub-adult elephant entered tracks. Due to dense fog, the loco pilot of the train did not get enough time to stop the train and the engine dragged the elephant for at least 50m. The incident happened around 10pm," said a railway source.

Railway officials rushed to the spot but due to late arrival of forest staff, the carcass of the elephant couldn't be removed immediately. About 2am, divisional forest officer reached the spot and the carcass was taken away from the tracks in an hour.

The train movement resumed at 2.25am.

Chandraveer Raman, the divisional railway manager of Alipurduar, said: "We did not receive information regarding the elephant movement on tracks. The incident took place after a gap of more than two years."

Foresters said there are walls on either side of the tracks and hence, the sub adult jumbo couldn't move away.

"As there was no option for the elephant to go away, it was walking along he tracks. Its surprising that the train driver couldn't spot such a huge animal," said Bidyut Sarkar, the divisional forest officer of Jalpaiguri.

Since 2004, 69 elephants have been killed by trains in the Dooars. Besides, bison, leopard, python and deer have also been knocked down by trains.