NILGIRIS: A five-year-old male sloth bear was fatally electrocuted after it came in contact with an overhead power cable at a tea garden in Nonsuch near Coonoor on Thursday night.
The animal got electrocuted and fell to the ground when it climbed an electric pole to reach out for a beehive.
The land belonged to Varadharaj, who had retired from the Army. Though the animal was electrocuted on Thursday evening, a postmortem could not be carried out the same day, and was scheduled for Saturday morning.
K Rajesh Kumar, veterinary assistant surgeon from Theppakkadu, conducted the postmortem in the presence of assistant conservator of forest A Manimaran, Coonoor forest range officer N Rabindranath and members of an NGO.
An official said there were burns on the bear’s paws.
“Skin and nails along with other body parts were intact. Though the incident occurred on Thursday night, Varadharaj noticed the carcass only on Friday evening when he returned from hospital after visiting a relative. To prevent such incidents in the future, we have asked Tangedco officials to place a fence around the electric poles across the Coonoor forest range, and replace old electric poles like this one.”