Guwahati, India
AP
—
Seven wild Asian elephants were killed and a calf injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks early Saturday morning in India’s northeastern state of Assam, local authorities said.
Indian Railways spokesperson Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told The Associated Press that the train driver spotted a herd of about 100 elephants and applied the emergency brake, but still hit several elephants.
The impact derailed five coaches and engines, but there were no casualties, Sharma said.
Veterinarians performed an autopsy on the dead elephant, which was scheduled to be buried the same day.
The accident site is a forested area about 125 kilometers (78 miles) southeast of Guwahati, the capital of Assam state. Elephants frequent railway tracks in the state, but Indian Railways said in a statement that the accident site was not a designated elephant corridor.
The Rajdhani Express was carrying 650 passengers from Sairan in Mizoram state, which borders Myanmar, on its way to the capital New Delhi when it collided with an elephant.
“We disconnected the coaches that did not derail and the train resumed operations towards New Delhi. Around 200 passengers in the five derailed coaches were taken to Guwahati in another train,” Sharma said.
In Assam, it is not uncommon for speeding trains to hit wild elephants. Assam is home to an estimated 7,000 wild Asian elephants and has one of the highest concentrations of pachyderms in India. At least 12 elephants have been killed by speeding trains in the state since 2020.
At this time of year, when rice fields are ready for harvest, wild elephants often wander into human settlements.
