An adult male elephant was Friday
mowed down by a train in West Bengal’s
Darjeeling district, a forest official said.
The incident comes a day after a jumbo
with its head chopped off was found
also in the same district.
The incident happened in Mongpong,
located on the fringe of Mahananda
Wildlife Sanctuary, when the Siliguri-
Alipurduar Express hit the jumbo.
“The incident happened Friday morning.
There is a need to further restrict the
speed limit of the trains on the Siliguri-
Alipurduar stretch. We are discussing on
lowering the speed limit to below 25
km,” said Chief Wildlife Warden
N.C.Bahuguna.
Since 2004, when the tracks on the 163-
km long Siliguri-Alipurduar route were
converted to broad gauge, speeding
trains have mowed nearly 40 elephants.
Following the spate of mowing down
incidents, in 2010 the speed of the
trains was been restricted to 50 km.
The railway lines on the stretch pass
through five forests-Buxa, Jaldapara,
Gorumara, Chapramari and Mahananda.
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