The elephant that was trapped in a mud pit after being hit by a train in the Karbi Anglong district of Assam died on Saturday morning.

The wild elephant was trapped in the pit in a remote corner of the Dhansiri Reserve Forest since last Sunday. Its six-day-long ordeal came an end just an hour after the forest officials got it out of the pit with the help of trained elephants.

“The postmortem examination revealed that the female elephant had suffered multiple fractures on its backbone and as a result, its hind legs got paralysed,” said Divisional Forest Officer S K Daila.

He added that the multiple fractures on the elephant’s backbone and dislocation of its hip joint had confirmed that it had fallen into the pit after being hit by a train.

The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) had referred to the elephant to draw the attention of the Union Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. The international organisation of animal rights activists had on Friday requested Mr Yadav to save the elephants from being hit and mowed down by the trains.

The forest officials and vets reached near the mud pit on Wednesday. The initial attempts to rescue it were suspended when the vets opined that it might aggravate its injuries.

The helpless elephant was given food and put on sedatives to provide some relief from the excruciating pain.
The forest officials had started contemplating the last option of granting euthanasia to the injured elephant. But some experts suggested use of trained jumbos to pull it out of the pit.

“Our trained elephants did pull it out at around 1 am on Saturday, but it died just an hour later,” said Mr Daila.