A female elephant was electrocuted after coming in contact with livewires set up at a riverine island near Borgang river of Assam’s Biswanath district, around 1 km from the sixth addition of Kaziranga National Park.
According to forest officials, the ‘deliberate’ case of electrocution also led to the death of a mature foetus the young female was carrying.
“It’s a deliberate case of electrocution where the solar fence was powered from the AC main line instead of going through a battery powered energizer,” said P Sivakumar, conservator of forests, northern Assam circle, Tezpur.
Wildlife conservationist Kaushik Barua said, “It seems from the last few incidents that a large number of young adult elephants are being killed. These were elephants which would have bred – an entire generation of elephants are being lost due to such ghastly acts by humans.”
Meanwhile, the forest department has lodged a complaint against the villager of Kathonibari area who allegedly laid the 220-Volt livewires leading to the death of the pregnant elephant.
A post mortem report is awaited.
Locals said that a herd of 50-60 elephants have wandered into the area in search of food. The forest department had already taken measures to secure crop fields from marauding elephants.
Electrocution deaths can be both accidental and deliberate.
Wildlife conservationist Kaushik Barua believes that rather than restricting the installation and use of power fences, a mechanism should be in place that doesn’t pose a threat to elephants.
“Proper equipment and permissible source of power needs to be ensured,” said Barua.
In another incident last week, an abandoned elephant calf was rescued by forest officials in the same area.
Comments
0 comment