High-tension wire leaves tusker dead in Jharkhand

An adult male tusker died of electrocution in a village of Saraikela-Kharswan district, around 150 km from Ranchi, on Monday morning when it was moving with a herd of seven elephants, forest officials said.

The divisional forest officer, Saraikela, Aditya Narayan, said, “The incident took place when a herd of seven elephants was passing through a farm field at Khelari Sai village of the district. The elephant died of electrocution, as a low hanging high-tension wire of 11,000 volts was found in the field.”

He said autopsy confirmed the cause of death as electrocution.

Villagers said they came out of homes hearing trumpet of elephant herd in the wee hours and found a full-grown elephant lying on farm field, after which they informed the forest officials.

Regional chief conservator of forest (RCCF), Jamshedpur, Vishwanath Shah, said the forest department might take legal action against the electricity department for flouting norms of wire height in wildlife dominated areas.

This was the second elephant death in a fortnight.

On June 16, a baby elephant died at Palamau Tiger Reserve after it went to quench its thirst in a pond where its leg stuck in a big stone.

In Jharkhand, on an average eight elephants were killed annually in past one decade. As per the elephant mortality data with the state forest department, a total of 82 elephants were killed from 2009-10 to 2018-19.

First Published: Jul 02, 2019 03:20 IST