Alipurduar, March 6 -- A technical officer lost his life after being attacked by a Kumki elephant (trained elephant of Forest department) during an Introducing Elephant Detection System (IEDS) exercise aimed at preventing elephant-train collisions in the Alipurduar Division of the Northeast Frontier Railway.

The incident occurred around 1:30 pm on Thursday near Rajabhatkhawa Station, north of Alipurduar Junction Station, where the Northeast Frontier Railway had organised a scheduled exercise to assess the effectiveness of the IEDS in detecting elephants and other wildlife on Railway tracks. Chetan Kr. Srivastava, General Manager of the Northeast Frontier Railway, along with senior railway officials, was present at the site during the trial.

As part of the exercise, two trained elephants from Buxa Tiger Reserve, Jonaki and Mumtaz, were brought to the location. Jonaki was stationed on the west side of the Railway track, while Mumtaz was placed on the east. Most Railway officials and media personnel were on the east side of the track when the Up Vistadome Tourist Special train from New Jalpaiguri to Alipurduar Junction approached the site. At the time, Sandeep Chowdhury (57), a retired Lieutenant Colonel and technical officer of a private company installing the IEDS, was positioned near Jonaki on the west side of the tracks. As the train neared, Jonaki suddenly turned aggressive, grabbing Chowdhury with its trunk and throwing him to the ground before trampling him.

He was rushed to Alipurduar District Hospital, where doctors declared him dead. Chowdhury was a resident of Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

Following the incident, Asit Karji, Jonaki's mahout, stated: "Despite repeated warnings, the officer did not maintain a safe distance. The approaching train startled Jonaki, causing her to panic. The attack happened so quickly that I had no time to intervene."

Reacting to the tragedy, Chetan Kr. Srivastava, General Manager of Northeast Frontier Railway, remarked: "Today's unfortunate event proves that elephants, no matter how well-trained, remain wild animals."

Apurba Sen, Field Director of Buxa Tiger Reserve, expressed his concerns, stating: "This is a deeply saddening incident. I urge everyone to learn from this tragedy and avoid getting too close to elephants, whether domesticated or wild, to prevent such accidents in the future." In response to the incident, the Buxa Tiger Reserve authorities have temporarily suspended Jonaki from all forest duties and placed her under observation.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.