When forest officials and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) volunteers reached the spot, the carcasses were almost beyond recognition. “A calf, a pregnant jumbo, a sub-adult elephant and a makhana were knocked down by the train. They were badly mutilated after being pushed for a distance of 1.5 km," said Karbi Anglong conservator of forests Abhijit Rabha.
Locals claimed there was a tusker among the four elephants, and villagers had uprooted the tusks. “By the time forest officials reached the spot, a good portion of the elephants' carcasses were chopped off and taken away. It's not uncommon in this part. The crowd was so large that even police could not control it," a local source said. Elephant meat is a delicacy among many hill tribes in the northeastern region.
The executive director of Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), Belinda Wright, said the time has come to change all the existing mechanisms in entirety in order to prevent killing of jumbos by trains.
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