BENGALURU/SHIVAMOGGA: A young wild elephant died of electrocution after it came in contact with a live wire, laid along the fence of a farmland, near Huruvanahalli in the Lakkavalli zonal forest area at Tarikere taluk in Chikkamagaluru district, on Friday. This tusker’s death takes the total number of elephant deaths by electrocution to 15 in the past two years. This is the fourth elephant to have died this week and the second elephant to die by electrocution in a month.
The male elephant was 25 to 30 years of age. Forest department sources have revealed that the electric fencing was “illegally laid to protect crop from wild animals”. A land case has been booked against Ayyappa, Murga, Raj and on a MESCOM engineer, under the Wildlife Protection Act. Officers of the department visited the spot. A postmortem will be conducted on Saturday. This is the second elephant to die of electrocution in the area in a month.
The Lakkavalli Range has lately become a death trap for elephants, with many farmers illegally electrifying their farm fences. Ayyappa, the owner of the farmland, who is absconding, had fixed the illegal electric fence on the D-Line, where his farm abuts the forest. A police case has been filed against him for the theft of power.
In the last two years, 19 animals have been electrocuted in Shivamogga, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Chamrajnagara and Kodagu. Fifteen elephants have been electrocuted in Lakkavalli, Tanigebailu, Bandipur-Nagarhole,Virajpet, HD Kote, and Siddapura.