BENGALURU: With farmers electrifying their farm fences illegally, the rising incidents of electrocution of big carnivores and mega herbivores in the state has become a cause for serious concern. Once again, a leopard was electrocuted and this time it was in Thimmarajipur, Kollegal wildlife range in the BRT tiger reserve, on Friday.
Suresh (27), a farmer, was arrested for illegally fencing his jowar farm and causing the death of a four-year-old leopard. The RFO of Kollegal Range told Express that this was the first time the electrocution of a big carnivore had happened in this range. “We have booked cases against him under the Wildlife Protection Act and the KPTCL Act. We have a healthy population of leopards in this area with about 50 personnel of anti-poaching camps manning this range. Despite being aware, farmers still continue to electrify their fences to protect their crops and cattle.”
Since January 2017, 13 leopards and elephants have been electrocuted in Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru, Chamrajanagar, Kodagu, Bengaluru Rural and other districts. Both these species have been found straying into fields in search of easy food. For the leopards, it is stray dogs or goats while for the pachyderms, it is sugarcane, banana and coconuts.
Wildlife activist G Veeresh said, “In Bhadra, elephant deaths due to electrocution has risen in the last four to five years. Further, no strong action has been initiated on this issue.”A senior forest official added, “The issue of sagging cables have been resolved to a large extent after the Virajpet incident but we are always on the lookout for electric fencing. We tell people to inform us. Usually, fences are powered in the night and switched off in the morning and it becomes difficult to detect these. But regular review is being done for all the earlier cases so that it acts as a deterrent and offenders do not escape after committing the crime.”
