Elephant Carcass Found In Odisha’s Mayurbhanj; 2nd ‘Electrocution Death’ In 24 Hours

Bhubaneswar:A female elephant was found dead at an agriculture field under Betnoti Forest Range in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district in the early hours of Thursday.

Villagers of Kuradik spotted the elephant carcass and informed the forest officials.

According to Baripada DFO A Uma Mahesh, who along with ranger Monwar Khan and other forest personnel reached the spot to investigate the matter, the 14-year-old pachyderm possibly came in contact with a temporary electric wire fence laid around the agriculture field by local farmers to protect their crops, leading to its death.

The electricity supply officials of Betnoti Circle have been informed.

This came a day after a sub-adult female elephant was electrocuted to death after coming in contact with a live wire on the outskirts of Nuagaon village under Panposh range of Rourkela Forest Division (RFD) in Sundargarh district. The jumbo, aged around 12 years, got separated from its herd, comprising 13 elephants, on Monday night and entered into a paddy field at around 4.30 am. It is being suspected that it died after coming in contact with a charged wire which a villager had extended to a brick kiln using illegal hooking from overhead wires.

Earlier, three persons were arrested after a female elephant was found dead in a similar manner in Rasgovindpur range on July 14.