A female elephant died after being hit by a goods train in Odisha’s Keonjhar district on Wednesday, PTI quoted forest officials as saying. The incident occurred almost a month after seven elephants died in the state’s Dhenkanal district after coming in contact with a live wire.
Forest officials said the a herd of 10 elephants were crossing railway tracks near Ramachandrapur village in the Sadar forest range at 9.55 pm, when the incident occurred. The other elephants were not hurt.
Santosh Kumar Joshi, the Keonjhar divisional forest officer, said the department was investigating if the train driver had breached 50 km per hour speed limit and the long blow horn rule. The forest department had issued a caution order on November 21, directing trains passing through the area to travel at restricted speed because of possible movement of wild elephants till 6 am on Thursday, Joshi added.
The forest department booked the train driver for dereliction of duty. He was later released on bail.
Wednesday’s incident raised the number of elephant deaths in the state to 10, Odisha Post reported. In April, a train hit and killed four elephants in Jharsuguda district.
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