A young adult female wild elephant, presumably 25 years old, was fatally hit by a train near Kanjikode railway crossing on Monday late night in a second such incident of elephant death on a rail track within a month in the Walayar range of Palakkad forest division.
The accident occurred around 11 p.m. when the Chennai-bound Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai Mail hit the elephant, which strayed from a herd. The herd was crossing the railway tracks.
Forests Minister A.K. Saseendran said that a preliminary probe found that the train failed to maintain the stipulated speed limit on the forest stretch. He said the railway authorities did not take care and therefore, a case under relevant provisions of the Wildlife Act was lodged against the loco pilot.
