Freight Train Kills 4 Elephants in India, Including a Calf

NEW DELHI — A speeding freight train traveling through eastern India on Monday barreled into a herd of elephants as they were crossing railroad tracks, killing a calf and three adult animals, an official said.

The official, Biswajit Mohanty, a wildlife expert in Odisha State, where the accident occurred, said the train was traveling at 75 miles an hour in a protected stretch of forest near the village of Teladihi around 3:30 a.m. when it struck a bull elephant, two females and a calf. The speed limit there is around 20 miles an hour, he said by telephone.

“At such a high speed, there’s no chance the elephants would have survived,” Mr. Mohanty said, adding that he had called for an investigation. “This is a big violation.”

Hundreds of elephants have been killed in India over the past 20 years, and deaths attributed to trains appear to be on the rise.

As mining and development projects shrink the country’s forests, Indian wildlife experts say, elephants in search of food have been forced to wander farther from their natural habitats.


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