Post-mortem will confirm which train killed 2 elephant calves: DCF

MANGALURU: The forest department has booked a case against Indian Railways after two elephant calves, one which was eight-months-old and another about 18-months-old, were found dead beside railway tracks deep inside the Shiradi Ghat forest, between Subrahmanya and Yedakumari railway stations, on Monday morning.
Sivaram Babu M, deputy conservator of forests (DCF), confirming this to TOI, said veterinarians conducted the post-mortem at the spot, and the carcasses were later cremated near Yedakumeri on Monday.

He said that under sections of the Karnataka Wildlife Protection Act, an FIR was registered at the jurisdiction police station. “Only after the post-mortem report is released, can we ascertain which train caused the death of the jumbos. The reports will have the time of death, and based on that time-frame, one can find out which train passed that stretch at that time,” he said. This is the first such death of elephants in the recent past, due to trains, on this stretch.

It is suspected that a train carrying goods to Bengaluru from Mangaluru, may have hit the two male calves, while they were crossing the track.

Sivaram said the station master of the Yedakumari Railway Station informed the Forest Department about the incident on Monday morning. The station in-charge was informed about the incident by the loco-pilot of a train passing the stretch.

Quoting veterinarians’ preliminary reports, Sivaram said the death is due to accident, where the train engine must have hit the jumbos in the ghat section. The animals were found dead in the slopes of the Western Ghats, deep inside the forest.


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