Title - Duronto Express runs over elephant near Dhanbad

RANCHI: A herd of elephants stopped several premium trains on the Howrah-Delhi route near Matari railway station under Dhanbad division of the East Central Railway late on Wednesday after a elephant was killed by when it was hit by the Kolkata-New Delhi Duronto Express.

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. The up line was affected after the accident. 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 DRM could not be contacted for his comments.

Among the affected trains, the Howrak-Kalka Express was delayed by over two hours while Howrah-Mumbai Mail was delayed by more than seven hours. Also, Ganga Damodar Express (Patna-Dhanbad), Jan Shatabdi Express (Ranchi-Patna), Doon Express (Dehradun-Kolkata), Nandan Kanan Express (New Delhi-Puri), Ranchi-Mumbai LTT Express, Sampark Kranti Express (New Delhi-Ranchi) were among the other affected trains. Dhanbad division spokesperson Amrendra Das said both the lines were cleared in a few hours and all services have now been restored.

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.