Assam: Three elephants electrocuted to death in last two days

According to the KNP authorities, the chain of the elephant got caught in the electric pole, located inside the national park. The pole fell, and the elephant came in contact with the electric line, leading to its “accidental” death, authorities said.

According to P Sivakumar, KNP director, the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) pole had been placed in the area a “long time ago”, and there were plans to shift it. “Considering the fact that it is an area near an elephant camp — frequented by department and even wild elephants — the process to shift the poll by ASEB and civil administration had begun in 2017 itself. It was sanctioned but due to some issue it was held up,” he said, adding that the death was “accidental and unfortunate”. “Other elephants keep roaming in the area…nothing has happened all these years,” he said.

While in Gorchuk the elephant was electrocuted close to the border of the Garbhanga Reserve Forest, in the other instance in Golaghat’s Dholagaon, the animal died in a farmland.

A release from the forest department said that the latter’s carcass had prominent signs of burns due to electrocution. “An electric post of 11KV line was found tilted near the carcass. Perhaps it got tilted due to brushing of body in the post. Electric lines were hanging from 6 ft height,” it said.

According to data shared by the forest department, 113 elephants have died in Assam due to electrocution between 2009 and September 25, 2020. Officials said that most deaths can be attributed to electrocution from sagging power lines or illegal electric fences put up by villagers to protect their crops and homes from wandering pachyderms.

Dr Bhaskar Choudhry, wildlife veterinarian of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), said that the ASEB should be held accountable for such deaths linked to sagging power lines. “They may not be a wildlife body but they are duty-bound to protect wildlife. How was a live electric wire functional inside a national park? If a power line is sagging, they should make note of it and fix it. These deaths happen year after year without any accountability or effort to fix the problem,” he said.