Why must so many elephants die on the railway tracks?

In a mammoth tragedy two Saturdays ago, a speeding train in Assam killed three baby elephants and two adult elephants on the railway track at night.


The elephants were crossing the track in a forested area. Locals say, that because the baby elephants did not move seeing the oncoming train, they were flanked by the adults who took the brunt of the train, but were unable to save them.


The driver tried applying the brakes, but it was too late.


Ten days before the tragedy in Assam, a group of wildlife conservationists sent a letter to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to act on the rising elephant deaths due to train collisions.


The letter listed measures that the government needs to undertake urgently to save these gentle giants.


"The government does not seem to care and until that happens we will keep seeing such tragedies happen again and again," Debi Goenka, founder, Conservation Action Trust, and a signatory to the letter, tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih. Read the full interview here.