Six jumbos enter power station, Tangedco workers save them in Chennai

Initially, panicked over the animal intervention, lineman Ramesh and gangman R Manimaram decided to stay inside their room in the substation.

COIMBATORE: The timely intervention of Tangedco’s field-level staff has saved six wild elephants, including a calf, who entered the substation inside the Anna University Chennai-Regional Campus from the verge of death on Friday. A video of the animals went viral on social media. According to the sources, six out of the herd of nine elephants from the Maruthamalai forest entered the substation premises around 3.25 am on Friday, after the matriarch broke the locked gate.Initially, panicked over the animal intervention, lineman Ramesh and gangman R Manimaram decided to stay inside their room in the substation.

However, seeing the animals approaching the switchyard, Manimaran contacted Assistant Engineer K Karthikeyan via phone to get permission from Seeranaickenpalayam EE M Vaitheeswaran to disconnect the power supply. After getting the approval the duo switched off the power supply. Later, they took a video of the elephants, which was widely circulated on social media.

On information, members of Coimbatore Wildlife Conservation Trust (CWCT), who were helping the forest staff in diverting another elephant in Somayampalayam which is about 2.5 km distance from Anna university campus, came to the spot and diverted the animals by making loud noises and lighting torches. Manimaran said, “I have been working at the station for the past two years and this is the first time that the elephants had entered the station. Except for the gate, no other properties of Tangedco were damaged by the animals.”

Karthikeyan said that the 110kv substation has a total of 19,600 connections. Due to the incident, the power supply was interrupted for 30 minutes till 4 am on Friday, he added. P Shanmugasundaram Secretary of CWCT said, “The lineman and gangman thwarted the incident and saved the lives of six elephants by snapping the power supply which should be appreciated.”