Indian Train Kills Elephants Crossing Tracks:
A passenger train ploughed into a herd of elephants in eastern India, killing seven, including two calves, as they lumbered across the tracks in a forest, authorities said.The crash was the worst of its kind in recent memory, said Hiten Burman, forestry minister in West Bengal. Ten other elephants were seriously injured and the death toll could rise, he said.
The train was travelling at 80 kilometers (50 miles) an hour through the Chapramari Forest, near Gorumara National Park, when it struck the herd of 40 elephants crossing the tracks on Wednesday at dusk, Burman said.He said railway authorities have ignored requests from his department to have trains reduce their speeds inside the elephant corridor in Jalpaiguri district, about 670 kilo meters (415 miles) from Kolkata, the state capital.Basu, who blamed unrestricted movement of trains for the accident, said at least 50 elephants have been killed by trains since 2004 in West Bengal state.
"It is an irony that elephants are being killed by speeding trains in north Bengal on regular intervals, even though it has been declared as the heritage animal in India and an elephant calf is the mascot of Indian Railways," said Animesh Basu, a wildlife activist and co-coordinator of the Himalayan Nature and Adventure Foundation.
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