The news of an elephant dying after being hit by a train in West Bengal has created a lot of outrage. It has brought to the forefront the deaths of animals that take place, almost on a daily basis because of such accidents. The video which showed the poor animal struggling to get on its feet, has been garnering national attention - even without people like Randeep Hooda tweeting about it.

And he’s passed away .. probably a good thing as he was really suffering and beyond a point of cure .. hope this can lead to some serious thought and scrutiny for further prevention of such accidents ..RIP 🙏🏽 @PiyushGoyal @PiyushGoyalOffc @RailMinIndia @RailNf @moefcc @PMOIndia https://t.co/InHfqx5Ovw — Randeep Hooda (@RandeepHooda) September 28, 2019

Someone has started a change.org petition with the name ‘Save North Bengal Animals from Train Accidents’. This is the concern it voices:

‘Year after year, we witness the animals getting smashed, run over by running trains in different stretches of North Bengal(Northern and North-eastern part of West Bengal) because of our ignorance and negligence.’

More than 2,200 people have already signed the petition.

While train accidents are common, cases of consciously meted out animal cruelty are also increasing by the day.

The municipalities of some states are reckless and heartless in their treatment of strays like dogs and there are either no concrete laws to punish these cruel acts, or they are not implemented.

About three months ago, more than a 100 dogs were poisoned, killed and buried by the municipality of Telangana, even though there was outrage, no action was seemingly taken, as only a few days ago around 40 stray dogs were poisoned to death by panchayat officials of Ramavarappadu in the city. Ramavarappadu is a neighbourhood of Vijayawada in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh.

Telangana: 40 stray dogs allegedly killed & buried by the Siddipet Municipal Corporation. Joel Davis, Commissioner, Siddipet says, "Case has been registered under relevant sections, we are yet to recover bodies of the dogs, further investigation underway." pic.twitter.com/ORAl2nZ2LT — ANI (@ANI) June 23, 2019

Sometime ago, a nilgai was buried alive in Bihar by forest officials; that again sparked outrage, but there was no solid consequence.

How many more merciless killings and avoidable accidents is it going to take for us to realize that animal lives matter. The authorities need to wake up to the rights of these living creatures who occupy the same place as us and whose safeguarding is our responsibility.