The deadly collision happened under a full moon late Wednesday in West Bengal between two protected wildlife zones where trains are supposed to slow down, USA Today reported. More than 20 elephants have died there in a little over a year, chief state forest conservator Atanu Raha told Agence France-Presse.
Str, AFP / Getty Images
People gather Thursday near one of the elephants that was killed by a train in India's West Bengal state.
But the number of animals killed in a single accident this week was "unprecedented and shocking," the World Wildlife Fund's local director in West Bengal, Sashwati Sen, told The Times of India. Local forest officials are preparing a report on the accident and plan to meet India's railway minister next week, the paper reported.
"One of the elephants was dragged for about 400 meters (yards), while the other four died on the spot," district official Kalyan Das told India Today. Two others were severely injured and died hours later, he said. "It is a ghastly sight," forest conservator S. Patel told the same paper. The baby elephants were among the dead.
Tracks between New Jalpaiguri and Assam were blocked for several hours Thursday by other elephants from the same herd who rushed to the scene to guard the seven dead bodies and an eighth animal who was wounded but survived, AFP reported.
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This is a serious issue in which should have someone held accountable for the murders of these elephants. When people kill other people, most believe that something should be done about it and places it as something of a high alarming magnitude. However in the case with the elephants, seven of them were killed by the same freight train rolling by and twenty in total were murdered in the same place within a little more than a year's time. There is a controversy that always arises about how there have been rights and consequences to protect individual human beings from murder but nearly none for animals such as these elephants. The most active supporters of animal rights is PETA. The social justice issue that pertains to this situation is whether or not animal rights should be initiated to protect them? Some believe that animals should not be cared for or protected with rights and regulations as we human beings are. They believe that there are other problems more serious in society today that needs to be of a higher priority. However in contrast to this, I believe that these elephants are prime examples of what needs to be done, and that is implement animal rights for these creatures and persecute those that have disturb their peace. The train that just rolled down the track while killing the beasts were without regard or concern, and didn't even stop once for them to walk on by. Instead, the conductor just plowed through. Animals have the right to live in peace and protection as much as we do, however unfortunately, people today are biased towards their own kind rather than help others in need. This is why not much has been done to aid these animals, and that needs to be changed as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteIn reading this article, the first concern that came to my mind was why would anyone build a heavily traveled railway between two wildlife preserves to begin with. It appears that right from the start the freight train organization had little to no concern for the safety of the animals. It goes to show that people tend not to worry so much about the rights of animals because they are considered by most to be completely inferior to humans. Some feel that we, as a society, have enough issues to deal with, so animal rights can basically be labeled as not an immediate priority. This is extremely unfortunate, because even if they are not able to communicate on the same level as us, they still feel pain just as we do and they deserve the right to live safely in their natural habitat. If this accident had involved the death or even the injury of a human being, then there would probably be a huge public outcry. But since animals were harmed in this accident, the situation will probably not be handled as severely. Not only does this story show serious violations to animal safety and rights, it also shows how in today’s world people tend to take safety precautions for granted. If the freight train conductor would have obeyed the safety precautions, then this gruesome disaster may have been avoided.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very serious issue, and someone should have at least been held responsible for these poor endangered species deaths. Who and why would build a train railway between two wildlife parts, that’s so ignorant and the builders were not thinking of the environment while building it. I think the builder of the railway should at least get sued or something of that nature because that was a blood bath of poor animals, and casualties that shouldn’t have been. Just as people kill or injure others, this should have been taken more seriously because animals have rights as well as us. This is unfortunate because if this event involved people it would have been taken more seriously and cautiously, but since it involved animals this event will not be taken as seriously as it would have been with people. This probably could have been withstood from, if the train conductor took his obligated precautions this would have never happened. If they wanted to build this train there they should have but a barbed wire fence up or some berg aide so these creatures would not be harmed. This was just unnecessary.
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