Staff Reporter
Guwahati: Barring the last financial year, as many as 24 wild elephants perished through train hits in Assam in the earlier five years. This is the highest number of elephant casualties in the country in terms of train hits.
This figure is already available with the railway authorities as well as state agencies and departments. Despite this fact, seven elephants died in the wee hours of Saturday in the Nagaon district after being hit by the Rajdhani Express.
According to information available with The Sentinel, in the financial year of 2019-20, two elephants died after getting hit by a train; in 2020-21, five elephants died; in 2021-22, eight perished; in 2022-23, seven were killed; and in 2022-23, two elephants died from train hits. After Assam with 24 elephant casualties, Odisha comes in second place with 16 elephants dying of train hits in the period from 2019-20 to 2023-24.
Last night's incident happened in a place which is not identified as an elephant corridor. This raises questions on the railways concentrating on measures to avoid such incidents only in elephant corridors. Now, there is a need for introspection and review of measures to be adopted by the railways and the forest department of Assam in places other than notified elephant corridors to minimize risk to the lives of these pachyderms.
A fresh rethink and active monitoring by the agencies concerned is required at this time, as elephants come out of their habitats to raid rice fields where the paddy is now ripe for harvesting. It has emerged that the movement of elephants is not confined to the elephant corridors alone; they are seen at places where food is easily accessible. Human activities in forest areas are depriving these gentle giants of their customary food sources, and they are forced to enter human habitations to appease their hunger. This has also intensified human-elephant conflicts.
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