NEW DELHI: At least 20 cows were killed after they were hit by a speeding train near Narela in northwest Delhi on Wednesday evening, railway officials said.
“The cattle were hit by the Kalka Shatabdi Express train between Holambi Kalan and Narela in the national capital,” Northern Railway spokesperson Nitin Chowdhary said.
The incident which occurred around 5.44 p.m. later considerably affected services on the New Delhi-Ambala rail route for over an hour after.
The official said that the train driver applied emergency brakes after seeing the herd on the tracks but the animals were still run over as the train was speeding at that time.
He said that the train left the spot around 6.55 p.m. after railways staff cleared the tracks of the carcasses.
Unattended ‘holy’ cows roaming freely around on their own, diligently chewing or blithely sitting in the middle of the Indian roads have become a common sight, reported Janta Ka reporter.
In the last four years, there has been an alarming rise in what’s now being known as cow terror.
Members of the right-wing groups masquerading as cow vigilantes have killed scores of innocent people on suspicion of cow smuggling.
Last month, Jayant Sinha, a senior member of Modi’s cabinet stoked a controversy after he felicitated eight convicts out of prison on bail with garlanded and sweets for lynching an innocent Muslim in the Ramgarh lynching case.
With IANS inputs