Randeep Hooda appeals to Government; 'Develop infrastructure but be sensitive towards voiceless creatures"

Actor Randeep Hooda has expressed his concerns towards the voiceless creatures, 'now at the mercy of humans', referring to an image of an elephant and her calf crossing railway tracks in West Bengal.

The actor extending his plea tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Health and Technology Dr. Harsh Vardhan and Minister of Road and Transport Nitin Gadkari in a tweet.

His tweet read-

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal’s office instantly responded by sharing a video titled ‘Plan Bee’ an initiative by the Indian railways to save lives of Elephants and avoiding such incidences. 

Wildlife photographer, Biplab Hazra who has documented wild elephants in West Bengal for a while, photographed a pair of a mother elephant and her calf crossing railway tracks in Bankura district three years ago. But the photograph resurfaced on the internet that even today manages to capture the plight of India’s wildlife, and a visual evidence of the rising man-animal conflict, where both keep navigating in each other’s territory. 

The photographer previously had photographed a horrid moment, of an elephant calf in flames, at a fierce mob attack.  The photographer shared the image on Facebook back in 2017 captioning it 'Hell is here' that won him an award that year. 

According to wildlife experts, India has the maximum number of elephant deaths due to train accidents. Ironically, the official mascot of Indian railways is an elephant, named 'Bholu.' With only around 50,000 Asian elephants left, this gigantic mammal is considered to be endangered.