A wild elephant got electrocuted in Chhattisgarh after coming in contact with a live electrical wire in Dharamjaigarh forest division of Raigarh district on Wednesday.
The elephant’s carcass was recovered from a farm at Medharmar village, a senior forest official said.
The owner of the farm had laid live wires for running an electric borewell which the elephant ran into and was killed. The pachyderm’s body has been sent for post-mortem.
This is the ninth elephant death in the state in the last four months.
In June, six elephants died in four districts of the state. While the carcasses of two tuskers were recovered from the Pratappur forest range in Surajpur district, another elephant was found dead in neighbouring Balrampur district.
Two elephants were electrocuted in Dharamjaigarh under Raigarh district and a calf died after getting stuck in a marshland in Dhamtari district.
One elephant died in July in Jashpur district of the state.
Following the fatalities, the state forest department in July issued orders to divisional forest officer (DFO) of Dharamjaigarh in Raigarh district, where maximum elephants have been electrocuted in the last ten years, to take necessary steps to contain such incidents.
The order said the forest department should ensure that the 11 KV electric lines, which have been instrumental in causing the deaths, should be 7.5 meters above the ground-level and insulated electric wires were used in these areas.
The department has also directed the forest officers to coordinate with Chhattisgarh state power corporation to find out each and every illegal connection or live wire in these areas frequented by the elephants.
In the last decade, the state has recorded an increase in its wildlife population including elephants, whose number rose from 225 to 290, as per the state forest department.
North Chhattisgarh is home to around 240 wild elephants, which roam in plains of the state. Several reports of human-elephant conflicts surfaced in the last few years in the region.
