CUTTACK: Forest officials arrested a 31-year-old man in connection with the alleged electrocution death of an elephant in Gopapur section of Badamba range under Athagarh division last week.
The accused, Dhaneswar Swain of Badamba’s Jani Sahi, was arrested on Saturday and produced in court on Sunday. The carcass of the tusker, aged around 20 years, was recovered from the Hadua nullah near Dudhiabereni village on Thursday.
On receiving information from the locals, forest officials reached the spot and seized the carcass for postmortem and launched an investigation into the matter.
Athagarh DFO Anurag Mishra said the postmortem report revealed that the elephant died due to biological shock and internal organ haemorrhage. During the investigation, it was found that the tusker died and collapsed into the nullah on Wednesday night after coming in contact with a live electric wire fenced around a maize field located adjacent to the water body.
Further probe revealed Swain was the owner of the maize field. “He had fenced the live electric wires around his farmland to protect it from wild animals and the tusker died of electrocution after coming in contact with the live wire. Subsequently, the accused was arrested and produced in court,” the DFO said.
Mishra said they are also trying to ascertain if the incident occurred due to negligence of the field staff. “It is a matter of regret that such an incident occurred despite time to time meeting with all line departments concerned and proper sensitisation programmes. Further probe is on to ascertain whether the forest guards are following the department’s protocol,” he said adding, necessary action would be taken if negligence is found on part of the forest staff towards performing their duties.