Mariani/Biswanath (Assam): An elephant and a calf died in separate incidents in Assam's Jorhat and Biswanath districts on Monday.
The calf met its tragic end after falling into a pit in Kharikatia tea estate under Mariani constituency in Jorhat district yesterday. According to reports, a pit was dug by the tea garden authorities for mixing medicines here. It is likely that the calf strayed out of the Gibbon Sanctuary in search of food and got separated from its herd. While wandering in the area, it accidentally fell into the pit and died.
Earlier, the calf had come to the sanctuary along with its herd. A team of forest personnel from Mariani reached the spot to recover the carcass of the calf from the pit.
In the second incident, a wild elephant died after being mowed down by a train at Buraighat in Behali area in Biswanath district last night. As per officials, the incident occurred when a high-speed passenger train hit the elephant, which had ventured out from Kaziranga's sixth division in search of food at night. The incident took place at around 10 pm. The ill-fated train,15618 Down Donyi Polo Express, was enroute from Naharlagun in Arunachal Pradesh to Guwahati.
Notably, herds of wild elephants regularly come out of the sixth division of Kaziranga and move around in this area. The accident occurred when a herd of wild elephants was crossing the railway tracks on this route.
In another tragic incident on Monday, two adult elephants and a calf were killed after being hit by a parcel train in West Bengal's Buxa Tiger Reserve in Alipurduar. The incident took place between Rajabhatkhawa and Kalchini railway stations at around 7 am.
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