Speeding Train Plows Into Elephants in India, Killing 5 Animals

NEW DELHI — The night train to Silchar was moving fast — too fast, the authorities say.

As it chugged into a forested area of northeastern India on Saturday night, a group of villagers waved their flashlights frantically, urging the driver to slow down. He didn’t know why, but he soon found out.

Ahead in the darkness, a large herd of elephants was ambling across the railway tracks. When the train driver finally saw what was in front of him, he hit the emergency brake, railway officials said, but it was too late.

The 14-car passenger train plowed right into the herd. Two calves and two adult elephants were killed instantly, and an adult elephant that was badly injured died on Monday. Some local news reports said that several baby elephants had not even moved as the train approached, and that adult elephants had sought to protect them by surrounding them.

Indian forestry officials said the warnings had been ignored for a simple reason: The train was running 10 minutes late.

“The driver was trying to cover up the time,” said P. Sivakumar, a senior forestry officer in northern Assam, the state where the accident happened. The incident is now under investigation.


In some parts of India, especially in the northeast, it is quite common for elephants to pass through populated regions or to step across railway tracks — or even four-lane highways — in search of food. Many areas have been designated elephant corridors, where drivers are supposed to proceed with caution.

In the case over the weekend, the train operator was traveling above the speed limit of 30 kilometers, or about 20 miles, an hour, forestry officials said. Earlier in the day, the Forestry Department had sent several urgent notifications to railway operators that a large elephant herd was moving through the Habaipur area, about 250 kilometers north of Silchar, near India’s border with Bangladesh. The area is deep green on most maps, and a well-known refuge for elephants.

This episode is the latest in an unfortunate pattern. As recently as December, a train in Assam killed five adult elephants, including one that was pregnant.

But in India’s wildlife community, the latest accident seems to have reverberated more, adding to the sadness and outrage that has been building.

“The railways need to be held accountable,’’ said Prerna Singh Bindra, a conservationist and writer. “How come we have not learned our lessons?”

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When elephants and humans cross paths

Elephants enjoy a special place in India. They play a significant role not only in the Indian ecological system but also in its cultural and religious landscape.

Man and elephants have peacefully coexisted for centuries. With rapid urbanisation, however, things are changing. Recent times have seen growing conflicts between elephants and man, both jostling for space, often leading to unfortunate results. Parts of Kodagu and Bannerghatta National Park in Karnataka have traditionally been home to the majestic Asiatic elephants. The Bannerghatta National Park, that stretches across 261 sq km, is among the last remaining tropical dry thorn forests of peninsular India. Since the late 1990s, human-elephant conflicts have escalated in the area.

An increase in human population and agriculture around these areas have reduced the size of the space that these elephants require resulting in elephants raiding agricultural fields for food. This raiding and destroying of property by large mammals have led to several conflicts with the local human population. These recurrent conflicts often result in the loss of both lives and revenue.

In a bid to mitigate these losses, new solutions have been adopted in the affected regions. Physical barriers separating the forested and the non-forested areas in conflict-prone zones have been created to keep the elephants away. Since 2004, in Kodagu alone, 260-km-long trenches have been dug in addition to 322 km of solar-powered fences at a total cost of Rs 94.3 million. While these costs may appear to be high, a cost-benefit analysis shows otherwise. In both Bannerghatta National Park as well as Kodagu, the benefit-cost ratios are high, indicating that the present barriers are useful mitigation measures. By building the fences, both, human as well as animal lives have known to be secured, the farm crops stay protected and with the reduced threat to life and property, the residents would not need to relocate—an activity that demands an additional cost of roughly Rs 72.3 million (US$ 1.2m).

As one can imagine, nobody would be pleased with the prospect of moving out of their homes and their communities and rebuild their lives elsewhere. This is probably the reason why it was found that the locals are willing to contribute a fair amount per household to keep elephants away from their lands. This willingness to help on the part of locals, supplemented by the state government’s plans to barricade one from the other could prove helpful to limit the interaction between the large mammals and affected humans.

Mitigation of conflicts can lead to improved revenue for the Bannerghatta National Park area by improving tourism. There is a need to explore more ways for humans and elephants to share land in perfect harmony. Let us all make some room for these gentle giants!

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Yusuf Pathan bats for elephant conservation

Mathura, Mar 18 (PTI) Batting for conservation of Asiatic elephants, cricketer Yusuf Pathan has said if concerted efforts were not made in this direction, the future generations will see the giant animals only in pictures.

The cricketer, who visited the Wildlife SOS’ Elephant Care and Conservation Centre here along with his wife and two sons yesterday, said he was happy with the way the animals were being protected by the centre.

He said the Asiatic elephants, found in southeast Asia, are getting extinct at an alarming rate due to hunting and other factors.

“It is very important to protect them so that even the future generations can see them for real and not just in pictures. This requires a combined effort from all,” the 34-year-old cricketer said.

Geeta Seshamani, Co-Founding Director and Secretary of Wildlife SOS, said it was a matter of pride that cricketers like Pathan were advocating wildlife conservation.

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