COIMBATORE: A wild elephant was electrocuted in a farmland in the Boluvampatti Range of the Coimbatore forest division on Thursday. The tusker, aged around 25, likely received the fatal electric shock as it pushed down a power pole on a farm at Kuppepalayam village.
K Rajan, farmer and owner of the patta land, spotted the dead elephant around 5 am on Thursday.
Upon information, a forest department team led by Boluvampatti Range Officer K Jayachandran inspected the spot. According to sources, the tusker had killed a cow in a neighbouring farm before its death. A compensation of `30,000 will be provided to the cow’s owner, said a senior forest department official.
The electrocution took place around 2.30 am when the elephant entered the farmland from within the reserve forest, as per department sources.
“A new electric line had been set up along a public road outside the forest near Kuppepalayam, about 500m from the reserve forest. The male elephant knocked down the electric pole, got caught in the wire and died,” said an official.
The jumbo’s carcass was lifted from the farm and taken to the Chadivayal Reserve Forest for postmortem.
Farmers in the area objected to the removal of the carcass, demanding a solution for the frequent intrusion of wild elephants into farmlands.