A Delhi-bound passenger train hit a herd of elephants in India’s northeastern Assam state early Saturday, killing eight elephants, railway authorities said.
The collision occurred at around 2:17 a.m. local time in Assam’s Hojai district at a location that is not designated as an elephant corridor, local officials added.
The collision caused the locomotive and five carriages of the Rajdhani Express to derail, but no passengers were injured, officials said.
The North East Frontier Railway (NFR) said in a statement that the train driver applied emergency brakes after spotting the elephant herd, but the collision could not be avoided as the elephants moved towards the track.
India’s state-run public broadcaster Akashwani said heavy fog in the area may have also contributed to the accident.
Derailments and elephant carcasses on tracks have disrupted rail services in parts of Assam and northeastern India. Officials added that passengers in the affected carriages were temporarily accommodated in vacant seats in other carriages.
The NFR said: “Trains scheduled to pass through this section of the road are being diverted to another route. Repair work is ongoing.”
District police chief VV Rakesh Reddy reportedly said: “Rescue teams are at the spot. The passenger coach of the Rajdhani Express has been connected to another engine and has now left the station.” indian express.
The incident once again highlighted long-standing human-wildlife conflicts in India, particularly collisions between trains and elephants.
India’s environment ministry told parliament earlier this year that about 80 wild elephants were killed by trains across the country between 2020-21 and 2024-25.
They included three elephants, including a mother and a calf, who were killed in July when a speeding train rammed into a herd near the Parshim Midnapur district of eastern West Bengal state.
The problem is particularly acute in northeastern India, where dozens of elephants are killed in train collisions every year.
After the July incident, authorities described the deaths as part of a recurring incident and said the environment and railway ministries were working to prevent such accidents. Measures include speed limits in sensitive areas and the use of seismic sensors to detect elephants near tracks.
In some regions such as the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, forest and railway officials have also begun trialling artificial intelligence-based detection systems and sensor networks aimed at spotting elephants and alerting train drivers to slow down.
