Speeding trains hit 2 elephants

2006-11-19 17:17

Kolkata - Speeding trains killed two elephants in separate collisions over the past week in India, officials said on Sunday.

A passenger train hit an elephant as it crossed a track in the northern Dooars region of eastern India's West Bengal state on Saturday night, said Tapas Bose, a forest officer in the district.

A few days earlier, another elephant died after a freight train knocked it over in a densely forested area also in the Dooars region, Bose said.

He said trains have killed at least six elephants in the area since January.

The Dooars, home to many wild animals, is about 640km north of the state capital, Kolkata.

Animal rights activists have been demanding that train drivers be ordered to slow down while crossing the Dooars.

A government committee, set up after protests by non-governmental organisations, has recommended that trains travel at a maximum speed of 30 to 40km an hour - especially areas frequented by wild elephant herds - said Animesh Basu of the Himalayan nature and adventure foundation, a local non-governmental organisation.

"The idea was that whenever the train drivers spot any animal on or crossing the tracks, they could bring the train to a halt," Basu said. "But the train drivers hardly follow this order resulting in the deaths of so many animals."

He said trains have killed at least 17 elephants, a leopard and many bison in the Dooars over the past few years.

- AP