A goods train in the small hours of Monday mowed down three elephants including a calf in Alipurduar district of North Bengal, sources said adding the accident took place inside the Buxa Tiger Reserve through which the railway line connecting Siliguri and Guwahati runs.
Three other elephants were injured too, forest sources said adding the incident took place while they were crossing the railway line near Shikari Gate between Kalchini and Raja Bhatkhawa stations off Alipurduar.
Praveen Kaswan the Deputy Field Director of the Western Range of the Tiger Reserve said that the pachyderms killed comprised a family of three a “male, a female and a calf,” all three elephants died on the spot.” An inquiry had been initiated.
Locals blamed the loco drivers saying that they must have been driving at a great speed as the place where the elephants were killed is a long and straight section where “there was no obstacle to the drivers’ vision.”