Three Elephants Killed by a Train in India

February 2008. Three Asian elephants, an adult pregnant female, an adult male around 30 years old and a juvenile male of about 6 years have been hit and killed by a train in India.

The badly mutilated body of the female elephant was found by the side of the tracks in Tamil Nadu along with an aborted male foetus. The train was not carrying passengers at the time of the crash.

According to B Ramakrishnan, Field Officer with the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), the herd had been leaving a forest reserve and crossing the railway tracks in order to reach crop fields. The Forest Department had spent the previous few days trying to drive the same herd away from nearby villages and back into the forest reserve.

 

118 Elephants Killed by Trains
It is impractical to shift many of the old railway lines, often more than 100 years old, that run through protected areas. However WTI/IFAW believes there is no justification for building new railway lines in protected areas, in particular elephant habitat areas. In 2006, South-Western Railways was denied permission to construct a broad gauge railway line from Chamrajnagar, Karnataka to Mettupalayam, Coimbatore by the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) taking into consideration that the area is an important corridor for elephants. This proposed railway line was to run through the Nilgiris Eastern Ghat Elephant Reserve, part of the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve and the proposed Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary.

According to Dr Sandeep Tiwari, Manager Programmes at WTI, there have been 118 elephant deaths in India due to train hits since 1987. A programme of the Uttaranchal Forest Department and the Northern Railways in collaboration with the WTI/IFAW has been able to halt train accident deaths of elephants in Rajaji National Park. A similar project will be taken up soon in Assam where the problem is acute.

WTI/IFAW believes that deaths of elephant caused by collision with trains can be minimised, if not halted, if the steps taken at other parks such as Rajaji are adapted to suit other locations.

Asian elephant populations have diminished over the years and there are currently fewer than 35,000 remaining in existence in the wild. Habitat loss, human encroachment and a booming trade in elephant ivory are the main causes for the decline and continued endangerment.

Courtesy of WTI and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)