Forest department officials believe that the incident occurred around 3 am, when the animal was trying to cross the tracks between Gulma and Sevak station and was knocked down by the Jhajha Express.

In a similar incident last year, an elephant was run over by a train in the Mahananda sanctuary on the same stretch.

In the last seven years, 26 elephants have been killed in rail accidents in north Bengal, of which nine were killed in the last two years. Most of the cases were reported from a 100-km stretch between Alipurduar and Siliguri. This stretch passes through prime protected areas such as Buxa Tiger Reserve, Jaldapara, Mahananda and Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuaries.

More than six months ago, the Ministry of Environment and Forests had identified four vulnerable elephant corridors in north Bengal and asked the Railways to take necessary measures.

Forest department, however, says that the Railways have always neglected the issue. The department has been expressing concern over the increase in the number of trains on the stretch.

The entire forest corridor is fragmented by several railway lines that pose a major hindrance to elephants moving from one forest to another.

“In the next decade, the Railways plan to almost double the number of trains running in the stretch. This will further threaten the wildlife in north Bengal,” said S S Bist, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), West Bengal.