Lately a tragic accident happened near Minneriya National Park as a passenger train smashed into a group of elephants, killing six, with four calves and two adults.
That occurred on Wednesday nightclose to a popular wildlife route, about 124 miles from colombo —
According to officials, the locomotive derailed because of the impact and there were no casualties. Local media has released dramatic images of the train crash with a derailed engine and other seemed displaced on the tracks surrounded by wreckage. The Wildlife Department has not released official word yet, but official Hasini Sarathchandra said forensic investigation is on to ascertain causation that lead the sad accident. 
Part of the critical elephant migration route between Kaudulla and Wasgamuwa National Parks, Minneriya National Park is a very well-known tourist destination.
For years, conservationists have been sounding the alarm over the increasing death toll of Sri Lanka’s increasingly numerous elephants in train crashes. With habitat loss, deforestation and an encroaching human expansion into their corridors pushing elephants into closer proximity to railway lines looking for food and water you have a volatile mix.
Fifteen of the nine roads killed elephants in train derailments in 2024, government data revealed today, down from 24 last year. Experts say that with Sri Lanka’s wild elephant population thought to have dwindled to roughly 6,000, the critical pivot for any action is to be expedited via early warning systems and/or modification of railway lines.
