Another Elephant Electrocuted In Odisha’s Dhenkanal

Dhenkanal: Yet another elephant was reportedly electrocuted after coming in contact with a live electric wire in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district on Saturday.

The incident took place near Baghagharia village under Hindol forest range. On finding the dead elephant, the villagers informed the Forest department.

On inspecting the area where the elephant was found dead, the Forest officials found live electricity wire. A wild boar was also lying dead there.

The Forest officials suspected that the poachers might have laid the live wire to hunt wild boars and the elephant came in its contact. The elephant was about 10-year-old, they said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the carcass of a female elephant was found in Khesra forest near Ghagaramunda village in the district on August 28. It was also suspected to have died of electrocution.

More than four elephants have died of electrocution in Odisha in around two weeks. A three-member team, constituted by the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry (MoEFCC), visited three wildlife divisions in Odisha and held meetings with senior Forest officials in this regard.

The team, headed by retired IFS officer and former PCCF (Wildlife) of Kerala Surendra Kumar, also included scientist from Wildlife Institute of India (WII) Bilal Habib and Joint Director of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) HV Girisha. The team visited Athagarh forest division, Satkosia Tiger Reserve and Dhenkanal forest division to inquire into the elephant deaths and recovery of carcasses.

Odisha is one of the states to have reported very high number of deaths of elephants by electrocution in India. At least 741 such deaths were reported in the country in 10 years till December 2020. Of those, Odisha accounted for maximum 133 deaths.

At least 22 elephants have died, majority of them believed to be due to poaching, in Odisha since June this year. Four unnatural deaths of elephants were reported in the last five days in different places. In June, eight elephants were found dead and seven each in July and August, sources said.