India-Hit by truck, Mumbai elephant succumbs to injuries
Mumbai, Sept 22....... 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.
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.
