GOALPARA: In the Lakhipur district of Goalpara District in Assam, a wild elephant's body was discovered in a paddy field. Its demise's cause is still a mystery. Residents in the area think the elephant may have been poisoned.
To examine the dead elephant, representatives from the Forest Department also showed up at the scene. A crowd of locals gathered to pay tribute to the wild elephant.
On the evening of October 9, a speeding train struck a herd of wild elephants crossing the tracks at Titabor in Assam's Jorhat district. Within minutes of the incident, a female elephant and her youngster were both dead. However, a third pachyderm, a female, managed to flee while still hurt.
The failure of the state forest department and railway authorities to stop such accidents and rehabilitate the injured animal by moving it to another area has drawn criticism. The arrival of elected officials increased the pressure on the authorities to move the elephant.
In another incident, A rhino was struck by a speeding truck at Haldibari on October 8, the day before the train struck the herd of elephants, as it attempted to cross NH 715, which runs beside Kaziranga National Park. The animal was able to stand Up and move on. Drone footage taken three days later revealed the rhino was still alive and well.
Wild elephants are forced to leave reserve forests every year around winter to raid standing farms due to a decline in the amount of forest cover over time and a need for food. The pachyderms may then be run over by trains, crushed in construction pits, or electrocuted by low-hanging, high-tension electrical wires, all of which can result in their death. In other cases, residents employ electricity or poison to kill the elephants in order to protect their crops.
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