A herd of 25 elephants who were crossing the rail track was saved near Dekargaon station in Assam’s Sonitpur district following the prompt action by the locomotive pilots of Northeast Frontier (NF) Railway.
Guided by Station Master LR Bordoloi and a gateman, DK Das and AK Roy stopped the train on time to save the jumbos on October 30th, 2019 near LC gate. The train had left Dekargaon when gateman informed Bordoloi about the movement of elephants and accordingly crew was alerted via VHF.
Union Minister of Railways, Piyush Goyal took to Twitter to hail the NF Railway crew for their alertness and quick action. ” हाथी मेरा साथी: Commendable alertness & prompt action of railway crew saved a herd of 25 elephants, who were crossing the rail track, by stopping the train near Dekargaon Station in Assam,” Goyal tweeted.
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There are a total of 67 elephant corridors notified jointly in consultation with the forest department of the respective state in five divisions of NF Railway – 1 in Katihar, 22 in Alipuruar, 23 in Rangiya, 16 in Lumding and 5 in Tinsukia. It has been noticed that wild elephants often cross railway track through areas which are not notified as corridors.
It may be mentioned here that the NF Railway with its efforts to avoid train-elephant collision has saved more than 140 elephants during the current year. While more than 165 wild elephants could be saved last year too due to the alertness of railway staff.
