A herd of elephants crossing train tracks in northeast India were hit by a passenger train killing four of the animals on Saturday.
The collision of the passenger train with the elephants caused the train toy derail luckily no passengers were injured, regional railways spokesman P.J. Sharma told AFP.
Another elephant was seriously injured in the accident, he added.
The elephants had gotten split up from a larger herd migrating through the hilly forest state, where train tracks cut across elephant corridors that act as transit routes for the wandering animals.
Elephants in India number nearly 30,000 and are an endangered species.
Railway authorities started speed restrictions on some routes that are designated elephant corridors. However, it is not yet clear whether this latest accident occurred in one of these zones.
This has not stopped incidents as in December Five elephants were killed in a train collision near a tea plantation in Assam.
Deforestation and construction has forced elephants to forage for food further away, bringing them into conflict with humans.
An estimated 60 elephants died in 2017, down from 110 in 2016.
The cause of many of the deaths were electrocution, farmers in India are in the practice of erecting electrified fences around their fields to keep wild animals away.
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