PALAKKAD: A wild elephant was electrocuted in the estate of a private individual in Palakkad district's Nochupully, Mundur on Wednesday.
The elephant is around 15 to 20 years old and the preliminary belief was that it was electrocuted from a trap set to catch wild boars. The carcass was found near a paddy field on Wednesday morning. Somebody had fixed an electric wire on the paddy field over a length of 350 metres.
The wire had been tied to an erect wooden piece put up at a distance of every 3 metres and electricity has been passed through it. The age of the elephant and the cause of the death can be ascertained only when a post-mortem is performed by the forest veterinary surgeon, said N.Vivek, the range officer who was at the site.
Meanwhile, the locals said that the owner of the land was living in Palakkad for more than three decades and the fixing of a live wire was the handiwork of the locals to catch wild boars.
Palakkad district Elephant Lovers’ Sangham president Haridas Machingal demanded an enquiry by the departments of forest and the KSEB on how private individuals were placing live electric wire traps to catch wild animals which is against the law. "These individuals who live on the border of forests should mandatorily seek permission from the forest department to electrify their fences. It should also be seen whether these fences obstruct the elephant path," he added.