Raisuan: In a tragic incident, a female elephant was killed after it was hit by a speeding goods train in front of Ramchandrapur plant near Ukchabeda under Sadar block in Keonjhar district Wednesday night.
Luckily, nine other pachyderms had a close shave, reports said.
According to reports, the incident occurred at around 10:30 pm Wednesday night.
Sources say a herd of ten elephants was crossing the railway tracks near Ukchabeda in the night. Meanwhile, the goods train coming from Joda rammed into the pachyderm, killing it on the railway tracks. While nine of them were able to cross the junction in time, sadly the pachyderm fell behind the herd, leading to its death.
After getting information, forest department officials including ranger and Divisional Forest officer (DFO) and senior officials of Railways rushed to the spot and took stock of the situation.
The train was detained and train service on the route was disrupted for some time as it took time to remove the carcass from the tracks. Meanwhile, the forest department booked the train driver for dereliction in duty as the concerned department had earlier cautioned the Railways about the movement of elephants in the area.
“We had informed the railway control room at Khurda about the movement of the jumbos in the area. However, his lack of responsibility led to the mishap. We have detained the loco pilot and recorded his statement. Further investigation is underway,” informed Keonjhar Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Santosh Kumar Joshi.
Sources said in past few days pachyderms have been straying into Dimba, Naranpur, Jamunalia Badaposi, Ramachandrapur and Basantpur under Sadar range area of the district in search of food.
Locals alleged that the incidents of elephants being run over by trains is occurring at regular intervals and neither the concerned departments nor the administration wakes up to the situation and takes steps to avoid such mishap. They demanded the administration’s immediate intervention in this regard.
As per reports, more than 10-12 pachyderms have been killed in the past one month. Seven elephants were electrocuted at Kamalanga village in Dhenkanal district October 27. And two more elephant deaths were reported from Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj districts in the first week of this month. Similarly, two more tusker deaths were reported from Angul district Nov 9 and November 14 respectively.
PNN
