Mourning elephants seek revenge after herd member killed by train

Animal News

A herd of around 15 elephants have stopped several trains on the Howrah-Delhi route near Matari railway station in Jharkhand, eastern India after an elephant was killed when it was hit by the Kolkata-New Delhi Duronto Express. (Graphic photo). They have also attacked villages and demolished parts of a school and several houses.Villagers have been keeping night-long vigils, but haven't been to drive away the herd. 

A railway official said the train was at full throttle when the herd tried to cross the track between Matari and Gomo railway stations. One of the elephants fell into a gorge, the impact breaking its spine. The other members of the herd, hearing its cries, attacked the train and damaged its coaches. A passenger traveling on the train, Ashish Singh said: "I heard a sound similar to some explosion. All of us were extremely afraid as we thought that Maoists had detonated some sort of a bomb. Everyone in the compartment kept quiet for some time.

"We only realized what had happened after he heard the elephant wailing." A disaster management team arrived at the spot around an hour later to rescue the stranded train and passengers. They burst several fire crackers and drove the herd into nearby forests. The disaster management personnel managed to take the stranded Duronto train to Gomo station from where it moved for onward journey after engineers approval. Dhanbad DFO Satish Chandra Rai said a team of doctors led by R C Gupta conducted the post-mortem on the dead elephant and it was buried in the same area.

Wildlife activist D S Srivastava said elephants have a strong sense of family bonding and often resort to revenge attacks. He said: "Elephants often try to return to the site of such accidents as they believe that their mate has only been injured and could be rescued by them. Even when an elephant dies a natural death, their friends cover the body with bushes and small tree branches." Srivastava added that the herd will try to return to this site again and again.