Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation Limited (TANTRANSCO) has begun deepening the ground under the low-lying power transmission line at the spot in the Meghamalai Reserve Forest where five elephants were electrocuted in a span of three months.
Officials said deepening the stretch would prevent further deaths.
The initiative was taken after the death of two elephants, aged between seven and 12, on Monday.
All the five elephants met their end at the same spot at Tower Saragam in Cumbum East Range of Venniyar Reserve Forest.
S. Kalanithi, Wildlife Warden, Meghamalai Wildlife Sanctuary, said the extra high voltage transmission lines running through the area, suspended at a height of seven to nine feet, had caused the death.
A senior official said a 40-metre-long and 10-metre-wide pathway with a maximum depth of seven metres will be dug by manually removing the rocks.
“The Forest department has not given us permission for blasting,” he added.
Twenty TANTRANSCO employees with the permission of the Forest Department did a survey at the spot on Saturday to chart out the pathway, he said.
The officer said the transmission lines running through Venniyar Estate are part of a hydroelectric project and were laid in 1958, adding that several factors make it difficult to raise the height of the transmission lines, an alternative solution demanded by environmental activists.
“It may be difficult to gauge the status of the lines as they are old. The tower weighs at least 10 tonnes and it will have to be carried manually for more than 10 km. The completion will take a long time. The construction of the tower too demands deepening of the ground by about four metres to lay a foundation,” he said.
‘Permanent solution’
On the contrary, he said that the deepening of the ground under the transmission line can be easily implemented and it can act as a permanent solution.
Environmentalists, however, raised furore over the proposal and claimed that manually removing the rocks would require permission from the National Board for Wildlife, part of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change as they would be altering the landscape.
Denying that permission was provided to TANTRANSCO’s proposal, Mr. Kalanithi said the team from the department had only visited the spot but did not start work.
He said that the department wanted to raise the height of the line between 23 to 30 feet by installing a tower depending on the slope.
When asked if measures have been taken by the Forest Department to prevent elephant deaths, he said, “We have begun temporary work but the details cannot be disclosed.”
The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests was unavailable for comment.