Thiruvananthapuram: An old female elephant was killed after being hit by a train in Kanjikode, at forest stretch between Coimbatore and Palakkad in Kerala.
The incident occured when a herd of elephants were trying to cross the railway track at around 3.30 am on Friday.
According to reports, a female elephant was killed while she was crossing the rail track and was hit by a Vivek Express bound for Dibrugarh.
Besides the death of the female elephant, an elephant calf was also injured, said sources.
Sources further said that the forest department personnel were searching for the injured calf.
In August this year, the Tamil Nadu forest department gave a proposal to initiate an Artificial Intelligence-based system for preventing elephant deaths on railway tracks.
In the proposal, it was stated that railway lines are passing through elephant habitat and elephants often cross the tracks and are subjected to risk of collision by trains.