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A high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early Saturday, killing seven wild Asian elephants and injuring a calf, local officials said.
The train driver saw a herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still collided with some of the animals. Indian Railways spokeswoman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told The Associated Press.
Sharma said that five coaches of the train and the engine derailed after the collision, but there were no casualties.
Veterinarians conducted autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day.
The crash site is a forested area about 125 kilometers (78 miles) southeast of Guwahati, the capital of Assam. Elephants frequent railway tracks in the state, but Indian Railways said in a statement that the location of the accident was not a designated elephant corridor.
Rajdhani Express train traveling from Sairang in the border state of Mizoram myanmarwas bound for the national capital of New Delhi There were 650 passengers on board when it collided with the elephants.
“We removed the coaches that were not derailed and the train resumed its journey to New Delhi. Around 200 passengers traveling in the five derailed coaches have been taken to Guwahati in a separate train,” Sharma said.
High-speed trains colliding with wild elephants is not uncommon in Assam, which is home to an estimated 7,000 wild Asian elephants, one of the highest concentrations of pachyderms in India. Since 2020, at least a dozen elephants have been killed by high-speed trains across the state.
At this time of year, when rice fields are ready to be harvested, wild elephants often venture into human settlements.