Assam: Seven elephants killed in train accident, CM orders probe

Guwahati (Assam) [India], December 20 (ANI): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday expressed deep sorrow over the death of seven elephants--three adults and four calves--in a tragic train collision earlier in the day.
In a statement, the Chief Minister said, "We are deeply saddened by the death of seven elephants--three adults and four calves--in a tragic train collision earlier today. I have directed the Forest Department to conduct a detailed enquiry on this deeply disturbing accident and take steps to further secure our wildlife corridors, particularly during low visibility seasons."
The Chief Minister emphasised the need for enhanced safety measures to prevent such incidents and ensure better protection of wildlife, especially in vulnerable corridors frequently used by elephants.
Earlier in the wee hours of Saturday, an unfortunate incident took place in the Jamunamukh - Kampur section under Lumding Division of N.F. railway in which the Train no. 20507 DN Sairang - New Delhi Rajdhani Express dashed with elephants, resulting in derailment of the locomotive and five coaches of the train. Seven elephants were reported dead with no casualties or injuries to any passengers.
Promptly after receiving the information of the crash, Senior railway officers, including the General Manager of N.F. Railway and Divisional Railway Manager of Lumding and Accident Relief trains arrived at the site to carry out the restoration work.
"The passengers of the affected coaches have been temporarily accommodated in the vacant berths available in other coaches. The derailment-affected train, after detaching the affected coaches, has left the site for Guwahati at 06:11 hrs. Once the train reaches Guwahati, additional coaches will be added to accommodate the passengers of the affected coaches, and the train will resume its journey." Kapinjal Kishore Sharma, Chief Public Relations Officer of the Northeast Frontier Railway, told ANI.
He further stated that the incident site is approximately 126 km from Guwahati and is not a designated elephant corridor, adding that the loco pilot, on observing the herd of elephants, applied emergency brakes. However, elephants dashed into the train.
While restoration work is complete, railway authorities said trains scheduled to pass through that section are being diverted to the UP line.
Meanwhile, technological improvements in Indian Railways (IR) are a continuous process. There are several Artificial Intelligence-based predictive maintenance applications, the Ministry of Railways said in a press release. Pilot initiatives involving AI-driven predictive maintenance of the Signalling system are being undertaken over Indian Railways at some of the stations to evaluate its efficacy.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled Intrusion Detection System (IDS) using Distributed Acoustic System (DAS) for detecting the presence of elephants on Railway tracks is implemented in 141 RKms section on NF Railway and further tenders have been awarded for 981 RKms section of Indian Railways.
The system is designed to generate alerts for loco pilots, station masters and Control Room about the movement of elephants in proximity of railway tracks, for taking timely preventive action. (ANI)