As per a report from the Railways, the elephants entered the track suddenly, and the Loco Pilot had no time to react.
In Assam’s Hojai district, eight elephants were killed and one injured when a herd of elephants was struck by the Sairang-New Delhi Rajdhani Express at approximately 2:15 AM Saturday morning, derailing five coaches of the train, but causing no injuries to passengers that were on board at the time of the incident.
As per a report from the Railways, the elephants entered the track suddenly, and the Loco Pilot had no time to react. Emergency braking was activated, but the train could not avoid hitting the elephants.
Both rail and forest departments are currently working to recover rail traffic along this particular route. Many trains have already been routed via other lines due to the disruption.
The General Manager (Zonal) of the Northeast Frontier (NF) Railway Zone, as well as the DRMD of the Lumding Division, have both visited the accident site and viewed recovery work. Passengers from the derailed coaches were relocated to vacant seats on other coaches.
By 06:15 A.M., the train was able to resume its journey to Guwahati, and it will have additional coach capacity added in Guwahati, prior to the train’s final destination of New Delhi.
