The incident occurred in the West Bengal city of Siliguri, which is located in the foothills of the Himalayas and known for its tea gardens..
The video shows on noticing the elephant at a short distance from the rail track, the train drivers opt to halt the train. As the pachyderm who appears to be strolling around gets near the locomotive of the train, the drivers opt to honk it away. The animal does get away but it refuses to leave the rail track immediately. It keeps grazing while walking in the middle on the rail track for a while, leaving the drivers helplessly watch it go away but taking its own sweet time in doing so.
Since #elephant was not so convinced by the intruders in his home. So he decided to check himself. Today at Siliguri. This is a place which connects mainland India with North East, some call it chickens neck. pic.twitter.com/UCvG2qCc3L
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) 6 August 2019
The video clip has fascinated a lot of people on the twitterati, leaving some netizens overwhelmed by the elephants’ innocence. It is so because many times there are news reports of elephants getting badly hit by trains and dying.
The chap is taking his own sweet time. No hurry. Welcome to my home, stranger.
— Rajesh Parikh (@imacuriosguy) 6 August 2019
A railfan elephant!😊
— Rajendra B. Aklekar (@rajtoday) 6 August 2019
Beautiful.. appreciate the patience of the Locopilot.
— श्रीMurali🇮🇳 (@mayamadhava) 6 August 2019
Poor thing... elephant herds lose a lot of their members to trains... So in its mind, i'm sure she things the train is bad and needs to be stopped.
— spyrise (@sameerpai) 6 August 2019
Incidents of elephants venturing near railway tracks or human establishments are not uncommon in the eastern part of India, due to the sizeable population of pachyderms in the region.
Several incidents of stray elephants attacking villages’ mud houses and leaving people injured or dead have been reported in states on the country's eastern coast like West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Odisha.
Elephants have been used in India for hundreds of years in wars and for religious festivals. Currently, their use is regulated as mandated by the Wildlife Protection Act and the Prevention of Animal Cruelty Act. It is also now illegal to capture wild elephants in India.
