A breathtaking snapshot reveals an elephant narrowly avoiding a collision with a train, emphasizing the growing peril these majestic creatures face in Indian forests. Rupak Dastidar, a renowned wildlife photographer, captured the image.
Developing a railway line bisecting the forest has significantly escalated the risks for elephants. Each year, dozens of these magnificent animals are killed in train accidents, leading to the imposition of speed limits for trains traveling through these areas to safeguard elephant lives.
Dastidar, who’s been capturing the forest’s wildlife through his lens for years, expressed his distress, saying, “Over 90 elephants have met a tragic end on these tracks since the railway line was established.
This infrastructure slices through several national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and reserved forests, disrupting the natural corridors for many species, including the Indian Elephant and Indian Gaur.”
The alarming frequency of accidents on the Alipurduar and New Jalpaiguri routes forced forest and railway officials to find a solution. They decided to reduce train speeds to 50 kmph during the day and further slow down to 25kmph at night.
These measures led to a decrease in the number of elephant casualties later that year. However, the threat persists as trains continue to cause fatalities among the elephant population, as Dastidar’s photo poignantly illustrates.
Last year, two elephants tragically died when a passenger train struck them in eastern India. The local community honored the animals by adorning their bodies with flowers and performing cremation rituals on site.
In the previous five years, wildlife officials reported that at least 26 elephants have been killed, and countless more have been injured by trains near the Nepal border.
