A ten-year-old elephant was killed when a speeding goods train hit the animal while crossing the railway tracks at Railway pole number 61/1 in the forest area of Tanda, near Subhash barrier, lalkuan on Saturday/Sunday night.
The train was going to Bareilly from lalkuan Railway station. The train had dragged the elephant till 50 metres on the railway tracks. According to villagers, a group of elephants were going to Bindukhatta from Tanda forest after crossing highway and railway track in search of food and water. One of the elephants from the group lost the way and was killed by running goods training while crossing the railway tracks on the midnight of Saturday.
The elephant received head inquiry and two of its legs were broken while one and half tusks were also broken. local residents informed the Haldwai forest officer Chandra Shekhar Sanwal and he along with his team rushed to the spot and inspected the area. Post-mortem of the elephant was held by a team of two doctors and later buried. The forest officer directed the officials concerned to register a FIR under section 9 of Wildlife Protection Act.
It should be mentioned here that with rising incidents of wildlife deaths , particularly elephants, by speeding trains is matter of concerns for the department concerned.
As per the information in Uttarakhand, on the same railway tracks near lalkuan, an elephant was killed by running training in 2010. On April 16, 2017, two elephants were killed by running express train in Ranikhet. Critics opened that one after incidents of elephants are being killed by running trains has been reported periodically in the State. Railway officers and forest officers claimed to have taken measures to stop such killing but it continued in the State.