Seven elephants were killed and one injured after a herd was hit by a train in Assam’s Hojai district early on Saturday, a forest officer told Scroll.
No passengers were injured in the incident.
Rohini Ballave Saikia, who was on his way to site, said that the engine and five coaches of the Sairang-New Delhi Rajdhani Express derailed in the collision.
The Northeast Frontier Railway said that the train collided with the herd at 2.17 am in the Jamunamukh-Kampur section under the Lumding Division, which is about 126 km away from Guwahati.
An accident relief train with officials from the divisional headquarters is at site, the railways said in a statement.
Passengers travelling in the coaches have been temporarily accommodated in vacant berths available in other coaches, it added.
The railways said that the incident occurred at a location that was not a designated elephant corridor.
“The locopilot on observing the herd of elephants applied emergency brakes,” it said. “However, elephants dashed with the train. Trains scheduled to pass through that section are being diverted through the UP line.”
The Northeast Frontier Railway said that restoration work was underway.
Suhas Kadam, divisional forest officer of the Nagaon forest division, told the Hindustan Times that three of the elephants who died were adults.
“One calf sustained injuries,” Kadam said. “We are conducting post-mortem of all the carcasses.”
Kadam also told PTI that the accident was suspected to have occurred because of dense fog.
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