A female elephant was hit by a train while crossing the railway line and died within minutes near Godigeri village in Khanapur taluk on Sunday night.
A forest guard on patrol duty noticed the carcass and alerted senior officers on Monday. Officials estimated its age as 20-25 years.
Basavaraj Patil, Deputy Conservator of Forests, said villagers told him that a herd of five elephants and a calf had crossed the railway line to feed on the sugarcane crops in the village. On their way back, only four adults and the calf could cross the line, while one elephant was left behind. Probably, it was hit by the train before it could run away.
Forest personnel cremated the carcass in the nearby forest.
Activists have been demanding a ban on night trains through forest areas in the district, as several animals had got killed on the railway track in recent years.
