Guwahati: Forest department officials were on Tuesday successful extrication of a wild tusker that had been struck by a speeding railway in Titabor of Assam on Sunday.
A mother elephant and her calf were struck by a speeding Rajdhani Express train as they were crossing a railroad track at Kharikatia railway station in Jorhat district of Assam.
The female tusker survived even though it was initially believed to have been killed, but the calf, which was about 10 months old, passed away right there.
The elephant, which apparently damaged its leg in the collision, woke the locals up with its squeals. Officials from the forest department arrived on the scene, but rescue efforts were hampered by the poor weather.
The 22-year-old elephant was found in a mud puddle. Officials from the forest were finally able to save it after a protracted effort. Using a JCB, they lifted the tusker and placed it on a truck.
Officials present at the site announced that the elephant will now be taken in for care.
Chandra Mohan Patowary, the state minister for environment and forests, acknowledged the state’s incompetence in handling the incident while speaking about it before.
According to Patowary, the difficulty in carrying out the rescue mission was exacerbated by the fact that the forest officials lacked the necessary tranquillizers to tame the wild animal.
He had told the forest department that it was necessary to dig the surrounding regions and make special arrangements in order to carry out rescue efforts.
Biken Pegu, the district forest officer for Jorhat, observed that following the incident, “The forest department had warned railway officials about the movement of wild elephants and requested that they make sure that trains slowed down when crossing the region. However, they chose not to.
“An elephant mother and her calf were both murdered. We’ll look into it and act in accordance with the law “Pegu added.