Kolkata: The bodies of three elephants — a mother elephant and her two calves — were spotted in a paddy field at Salboni in West Midnapore district of West Bengal, on Sunday morning.
An initial investigation has suggested that the three elephants came in contact with a high-tension electricity wire.
The bodies were first noticed by the local villagers in the morning, who subsequently brought the matter to the notice of the local forest department office.
According to local sources, a herd of elephants was passing through the village. An electric pump was installed to irrigate the farmland with a live wire passing through the land. It is believed that the three elephants died after touching the wire and getting electrocuted.
At the time the report was filed, the forest department officials had reached the spot and started an investigation. They said that the cause of the deaths will be clear after the autopsy.
However, an insider from the state forest department said that the electrocution death of elephants is nothing new in the Jangalmahal region, which is a major elephant zone in the state.
“In the past, elephants died in these forest areas due to electrocution. There had been a lot of uproar about that. There has been a common tendency among farmers in the region to surround their farmlands with electric wires to protect their crops,” the state forest department official said.
Last month, a middle-aged tusker died after getting electrocuted as it came into contact with an illegally energised fence erected around farmland in the Falakata block of Alipurduar district.
The state forest department insider said that in the past, there had been several attempts by the department to stop the villagers from erecting illegally energised fences around their farmland, as this causes elephant deaths, especially when they are passing in a herd from one forest to another.
“Earlier, there had been instances of penalising the offenders on this count. However, the fencing activity has continued,” he added.
–IANS
