"A massacre of elephants" -- That's what Dr. Biswajit Mohanty, a former member of the National Board of Wildlife, called the train collision in India that occurred earlier this month.
Four elephants, including a big tusker and a calf were killed when a train crashed into the heard that was attempting to cross the rails. The crash took place in Odisha, in an area that is known to be an elephant corridor, near the Sambalpur Elephant Reserve.
After a baby elephant was killed there last year in a train collision, the forest department issued warnings to SE Railway of the specific danger the train crossing posed to elephants but the company didn't take the necessary precautions. And now four innocent elephants have paid with their lives.
Over the last 8 years, an astounding 22 elephants have been killed on the rail tracks. Rail deaths are the third largest cause of unnatural death for elephants in India after poaching and electrocution. With the elephant population dwindling, the government must make the railway companies take proper precautions when transiting elephant corridors and punish those that refuse to heed their warnings.
Please sign the petition and ask the Forest Department to implement obligatory speed limits in elephant corridors and help save the remaining elephants from a horrible fate. 