Three elephants — including a mother and her calf — were killed after being hit by a train in West Bengal’s Jhargram district early Friday while a state forest department-backed Hula party was attempting to drive the herd out of a human settlement.
The incident occurred near Banstala railway station under the Kharagpur division of South Eastern Railways, around 14 km from Jhargram town, when the herd was crossing the tracks. The Kharagpur-bound Janshatabdi Express hit the animals around 1.45 am.
State Forest Minister Birbaha Hansda told The Indian Express, “It is an extremely sad incident. Personally too, I am very upset. A mother elephant, a calf, and another adult elephant died after being hit by the train. I will visit the spot shortly.”
Hansda added that the Railways had been informed hours earlier of an elephant drive in the area. “At around 11 pm, we alerted the Railways…. despite this, the incident occurred. We have ordered a probe. Unlike in North Bengal, where speed restrictions are in place in elephant corridors as per Supreme Court orders, there are no such rules in South Bengal,” she said.
Forest officials later removed the carcasses and cleared the area.
The hula party — a group of local youth hired by the state government to drive away elephants that stray into villages and farmlands — had been driving the herd through the area late at night when the animals crossed the railway tracks.
Suvrajyoti Chatterjee, secretary of the Human and Environment Alliance League (HEAL), an NGO working on reducing human-animal conflict in Bengal, said: “It is now evident that a more pragmatic, science-backed, and robust conflict management strategy is urgently required.”
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“The solution to the complex issue of man-elephant conflict must involve inclusive decision-making, with active participation from all stakeholders including the Forest Department, local communities, independent wildlife experts, railway authorities, civil society, and conservation organizations,” Chatterjee said.
In August last year, a pregnant elephant that had strayed into Jhargram town died after it was allegedly attacked with a burning spear by a hula party. In February this year, an elephant was severely injured after villagers in Jalpaiguri chased it with an earthmover. In June, forest officials had launched a probe after fireballs were allegedly hurled at a herd in Jhargram, one of which struck a calf.
