DHENKANAL: A day after a sub-adult elephant was found electrocuted in Sambalpur’s Naktideul, the carcass of a 10-year old female elephant was found in Khajuriakata section of Hindol range on Monday, making it two elephant deaths in as many days.
The elephant had burn marks on its body and was believed to have been electrocuted last night. Prabhakar Sahoo, a resident of Bohiragodi village, has been arrested by Hindo range officials for laying live electric wire on his agriculture field near the village.
Dhenkanal divisional forest officer Sumit Kar said a herd was passing by that village last evening when the female sub-adult elephant came in contact with the live wire laid on the field of Prabhakar. She died instantly.
In the morning, the villagers saw the carcass and informed Hindol range. RCCF of Angul circle Sanjay Kumar Swain, DFO Kar and Joint Task Force chief Manoj Nair visited the spot. They found burn injuries on the body of the elephant and confirmed the death due to electrocution.
Preliminary investigation revealed the private land belonged to Sahoo. He was immediately picked up and admitted to laying the electric wire on his land to hunt animals. He was arrested and produced before a court.
The postmortem was conducted by a team of veterinary doctors in presence of senior forest officials. The samples of the carcass were sent to laboratories for further investigation.