NILGIRIS: A seven-year-old male wild elephant was electrocuted at Vadavayal in Sri Madurai Panchayat near Gudalur on Wednesday morning. This is the second wild elephant death due to electrocution in the Gudalur forest division in the last 10 days.
The animal received a fatal electric shock while entering a banana plantation. An electric line was found entangled beneath the dead animal.
The property in which the tragic incident happened belongs to one Balakrishnan, though an inspection found that he was cultivating bananas on encroached revenue land.
Gudalur Divisional Forest Officer Venkatesh Prabhu and Forest Range Officer Radhakrishnan held an inspection along with the officials of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO).
Initially, the Gudalur forest division officials thought that the animal died after getting stuck in the slush. However, after the field inspection and assessing the animal’s body, Theppakkadu Elephant Camp Veterinarian K Rajesh Kumar and Gudalur Animal Husbandary Veterinarian Sugumar confirmed that it had received an electric shock.
DFO Venkatesh Prabhu said that they have registered a case against the grove owner, Balakrishnan, who is absconding now,
Meanwhile, TANGEDCO officials will soon submit a report on illegal power connection.
“There is evidence that the animal died due to electrocution. Its internal organs, including the heart, show the impact of electric shock. The landowner used sticks to illegally draw the power line to the fence from his house. He laid the electric fence to prevent wild elephant intrusion. The animal reached the plantation in the early hours of Wednesday in search of water and food and died in the illegal fence,” DFO Prabhu said.
The elephant’s tusks were removed from the carcass after postmortem. The carcass was buried at a nearby spot. A total of 43 wild elephants were killed across the state due to various reasons. Among them, four died due to electrocution.
A 35-year-old tusker was electrocuted at Machinakolly road in the Gudalur forest range on July 30 after it came in contact with a live wire while trying to consume the bark of a betel nut tree.