Train hits elephant herd in northeastern India, kills 7 elephants

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A high-speed passenger train plowed into a herd of elephants in northeastern India early Saturday, killing seven elephants and injuring a calf.The Rajdhani Express, which was carrying around 650 passengers, was traveling through Assam when its driver spotted about 100 wild Asiatic elephants crossing the tracks and applied the emergency brakes. Despite the effort, the train collided with several of the endangered animals, The Associated Press reported.MOUNTAIN LION ATTACKS 4-YEAR-OLD WALKING WITH FAMILY AT WASHINGTON’S OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK Passengers on a train look at the carcass of an Asiatic wild elephant being removed from a railway track after a speeding train hit a herd of wild elephants in Changjurai village, east of Guwahati, India, on Saturday.  (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)The impact caused the engine and five coaches to derail. None of the train’s passengers, who were traveling from Sairang in Mizoram state to New Delhi, were harmed in the incident, AP reported.”We delinked the coaches which were not derailed, and the train resumed its journey for New Delhi,” Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told AP. “Around 200 passengers who were in the five derailed coaches have been moved to Guwahati in a different train.”SOUTH AFRICAN ELEPHANT KILLS TOURIST WHO WAS TRYING TO SAVE CHILDREN AT KRUGER NATIONAL PARK Railway staff, workers, and police are present as they restore train service after a herd was struck by the Sairang-New Delhi Rajdhani Express in Hojai District, Assam, Saturday.  (Anuwar Hazarika/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Veterinarians later conducted autopsies on the elephants. They were scheduled to be buried later in the day on Saturday, according to AP.LAW STUDENT KILLED BY ELEPHANT DURING VACATION TO THAILAND: OFFICIALS FILE PHOTO: A herd of wild elephants gathers near a field in search of food at a village in Nagaon district, Assam, India, on November 21, 2025.  (Anuwar Hazarika/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Assam is home to an estimated 7,000 wild Asiatic elephants, and train-related deaths have been an ongoing issue. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APPAt least a dozen elephants have been killed on railway tracks in the state since 2020, AP reported.Asiatic elephants are considered endangered, and there are currently only an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 left in the wild, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Sophia Compton is a Writer at Fox News Digital. Sophia was previously a business reporter covering finance, energy and tourism and has experience as a TV news producer. She graduated with a journalism degree in 2021 from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

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