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Hit by truck, elephant succumbs to injuries
Mumbai:
Two days after being hit by a water tanker on a congested street of
Mumbai, an elephant died today morning leaving behind tearful owners and
agitated animal lovers. Heart-rending scenes rented the air as the family,
which owns four more elephants, bid a final adieu to 25-year-old Lakshmi.
The young pachyderm met with an accident on Tuesday and left with a serious
spinal injury and a fracture. "Suddenly a lorry came and hit her in the
back. She was walking on the side of the road but was hit from behind,"
said Shanker Pandey, Lakshmi's owner. Though the elephant was shifted
to a veterinary hospital and doctors said her condition was improving,
she slipped into a coma and later stopped responding to any treatment.
But Lakshmi's death has angered animal lovers in the area with many blaming
the owners squarely for negligence. "I say the person, the driver is responsible
for the accident and death of this animal. But the owner is equally responsible
because they are not taking due care. They take animals to various places
in the night. They took the animal, a protected species, like this on
a road. A place where even men cannot walk freely, how can you expect
an elephant walking on a Bombay street?" asked J.C. Khanna, Secretary
of the Bombay Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. There were
several cases of elephants being killed while trying to cross railway
tracks and in other accidents. Wildlife Trust of India, a wildlife conservation
organisation has been campaigning to fix reflectors on elephants using
busy roads to avoid being hit by speeding vehicles. But mahouts refuse
to use them on their animals citing various reasons.
-Sept
22, 2006
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