COLOMBO : Elephants are considered as ‘holy’ in Sri Lanka, and there are just about 7,000 of them left. So when a passenger train hit and killed an elephant and three calves in northern Sri Lanka on Wednesday (Aug 17), it has become national news here.

The elephants were crossing a newly upgraded railway line that runs through a jungle area at Cheddikulam, about 260km north of Colombo, when the accident happened.

“One of the baby elephants was dragged about 300m along the track after being hit,” a local police official told the media. He said this was probably Sri Lanka’s worst accident involving elephants. No passengers were injured in the collision. However, in 2011, three baby elephants were killed by a passenger train along the same track in a forest area about 150km north of Colombo.

Although elephants are considered sacred in Sri Lanka and are legally protected, nearly 200 are killed every year, many by farmers after the animals stray onto their land.

Marauding elephants also claim the lives of about 50 people every year, mostly by trampling through villages built near their habitats. The same thing is reported from various places in India.

In May this year, four elephants including two calves were killed by lightning in the country’s north.

Sri Lanka’s elephant population has dwindled to just over 7,000, according to the latest census.

[prepared by Debrata Sarma from news sources]

  animals, elephants, Sri Lanka