On Saturday afternoon, 10 October, a herd of more than 70 elephants was crossing the Bagdogra-Naxalbari railway line at Naxalbari in West Bengal, India, as the Sikkim Mahananda Express approached. Akash Kerketta, a worker with the Kurseong forest division, quickly found a red cloth and kept waving it to alert the drivers, who stopped the train, and the herd crossed safely, Ei Samay reports.
The herd was moving from the Tukriajhar forest at Naxalbari towards the Bagdogra forest, and its route crosses the railway beside the Kiranchandra tea garden. After the line, it also crossed the national highway safely and entered the Bagdogra forest.
A forest department official said the forests around Bagdogra, Naxalbari and Tukriajhar in the Terai of North Bengal are a well-known elephant corridor. Elephants move between forests in search of food and safe shelter, and railways, highways and tea gardens on the way often create risks, so forest staff stay alert.
Another accident was avoided the same night. At about 8:50pm, a mother elephant and her calf were on the line at Damanpur, between Rajabhatkhawa and Alipurduar Junction on the Northeast Frontier Railway's Dooars route. Loco pilots Arindam Ghosh and Dhrubajyoti Sarkar, driving the up Sikkim Mahananda Express at speed, slowed the train as soon as they saw them, and both crossed safely.
The paper also recalled that boatmen at Malbazar had earlier rescued an elephant calf swept away by a river current.
Photo (illustrative): wild elephants at Jaldapara. Photo: Jonoikobangali / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Ei Samay
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