Goods train halts for 2 hours in Jharkhand as elephant gives birth

RAMGARH: A goods train carrying coal was stopped for over two hours so that a pregnant elephant, who was in labour on the track, could give birth to a calf undisturbed.

The incident took place on a forest stretch between Barkakana and Hazaribag railway stations in Jharkhand. Since the particular track is primarily used for goods transportation, no passenger train was affected.

Two weeks ago, around 3am, the forest officials contacted railway officials to halt the goods trains for a few hours. The loco pilot was immediately alerted to ensure that both the jumbo and the calf were safe.

Divisional forest officer, Ramgarh, Nitish Kumar, said: "A forest guard informed me that a pregnant elephant is lying on the tracks in labour pain. He warned that it might get run over, and requested to stop all train movement along the route. I immediately contacted railway control room in Barkakana and requested them to stop all trains."

Videos of the incident, recorded by a forest guard and some locals, was widely circulated on social media Tuesday.

The heart-warming incident marks a sharp contrast to rising incidents of human-elephant conflict in the state. Jharkhand has reported a staggering loss of 474 human lives in past five years due to such conflicts, making the state's fatality figure second only to Odisha in the country, former junior Union minister for environment, forest and climate change, Kriti Vardhan Singh, had said in a written response in Lok Sabha.

Besides, 30 elephants had died in the state because of electrocution and various other reasons from 2019 till July 2024, Parliament was told.