Two elephants were run over by a speeding goods train in Odisha’s Sundargarh district in the early hours of Thursday.
The incident took place close to Mahipani near Bisra in the district when a goods train hit two elephants that were separated from their herd.
This is the third train accident leading to the death of elephants in Odisha in the past three months.
The Odisha Forest department blamed the Indian Railways for the mishap. According sources in the Forest Department, the Railway Division was warned about the presence of a 15-member elephant herd in the Mahipani area two days ago.
On Wednesday evening, another caution message was also said to have been delivered to the Railways on the movement of elephants in the area, requesting trains be slowed down while passing through Mahipani, said the Rourkela Forest Division.
However, the goods train was moving at such a high speed that the carcass of one of the elephants was dragged along the track for 500 metres, and its body parts were strewn everywhere.
On December 5, an elephant died on the spot when it was hit by the Bhubaneswar-Rourkela Intercity Express in the Jujumura area of Sambalpur district. After a fortnight, another elephant was killed when it was hit by Puri-Surat Express train on the outskirts of Sambalpur.
