Photo: Elephant Collides With Train, Elephant Dies

An adult male elephant was Friday morning mowed down by a speeding train in the West Bengal Darjeeling district. The incident, according to a forest official, comes a day after a jumbo with its head chopped off was found also in the same district.

“The incident happened Friday morning. There is a need to further restrict the speed limit of the trains on the Siliguri-Alipurduar stretch. We are discussing on lowering the speed limit to below 25 km,” said Chief Wildlife Warden, N.C. Bahuguna.

Since 2004, when the tracks on the 163-km long Siliguri-Alipurduar route were converted to broad gauge, speeding trains have mowed nearly 40 elephants.

Following the spate of mowing down incidents, in 2010 the speed of the trains was restricted to 50 km but it appears 50k is still too much, giving the latest incident.