MADIKERI:Four wild elephants were electrocuted on Monday night in a private coffee estate in Yadoor near Virajpet. According to initial reports, the female elephants, two adults aged 40 to 45 years and two calves aged 18 months to 3 years, had wandered into the coffee estate from the Nagarahole wildlife sanctuary in search of food.
“It is a clear case of accident. The electric cables going into the coffee estate in Yadoor had melted and snapped due to a short circuit. The elephants walked over them and were electrocuted on Monday night or Tuesday morning. Perhaps the animals were walking close together and when one animal stepped on the live cable, the others animals too got electrocuted,” said Maria Christu Raja, deputy conservator of forests (Virajpet division).
Speaking to Express, Raja said, “This is one of the worst cases of wildlife electrocution. It was only 10 days back that two elephants were electrocuted. Though the spot is not a regular elephant migration corridor, they do stray into the buffer zone of Nagarahole wildlife sanctuary in search of fodder.”
Raja added, “Elephants regularly pass through coffee estates in the vicinity, but we will now have to look at ways to make it safe for them. By next week, we will have a meeting with local stakeholders, including Chamundeshwari Electric Supply Corporation, along with domestic power users in the area.
Locals in Yadoor told Express that the accident took place due to blocking of elephant corridor by private estates. They alleged that estate owners often put up electric fencing to stop elephant incursion.
On June 14, two elephants were electrocuted in Kannangala.