Guwahati: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and other relevant authorities to respond following the death of seven elephants in a train collision near Guwahati last December.
The tribunal took suo motu notice of a newspaper report detailing the incident, which occurred on December 20, 2025, when the Sairang–New Delhi Rajdhani Express struck a herd of elephants.
The NGT has formally included the CPCB, the Assam government through its special chief secretary (environment), the state’s principal chief conservator of forests, and the Assam State Pollution Control Board as respondents in the matter.
The tribunal noted that the facts reported in the news raised “substantial questions relating to the environment” in its order dated January 5.
According to the report cited, the collision caused the engine and five coaches of the Rajdhani Express to derail along the Jamunamukh–Kampur section under the Lumding division of the Northeast Frontier Railway.
The matter is scheduled to be heard by the NGT’s eastern zonal bench in Kolkata on January 28.
On the day of the incident, the train struck the elephants near Changjurai village in Assam’s Hojai district, killing seven animals, three adults and four calves, and injuring another calf.
Following the tragedy, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma ordered a detailed investigation and directed the Forest Department to examine the circumstances that led to the collision.
Nagaon divisional forest officer Suhash Kadam suggested that heavy fog may have contributed to the accident.
The incident triggered criticism from the Kaziranga Wildlife Society (KWS), one of the oldest conservation NGOs in Northeast India, which urged a formal judicial probe.
The group alleged that the train had possibly breached a 2014 Supreme Court order that mandates speed limits of 30–40 kmph in elephant-prone areas, depending on the vulnerability of the railway stretch.