Guwahati: Three full-grown wild elephants were electrocuted to death after coming in contact with high-voltage electric wires at Rani in Assam’s Kamrup district on Friday. The carcasses of the pachyderms were noticed by the villagers of the Panichanda area early in the morning. The area falls under the jurisdiction of the Rani forest division. The elephants had probably come down to the village from the nearby forests in search of food when they were electrocuted.
Villagers soon informed the personnel of the nearby forest beat office after which they arrived and a post-mortem was performed to ascertain the cause of the elephants' death.
The jumbos were later buried after the villagers performed some rituals as a mark of respect.
This is not the first instance when wild elephants have died of electrocution. Several cases of such deaths have been reported from across the state in the past.
Wild elephants often stray into human settlements in search of food and water due to the fast-depleting forest cover in the state which has resulted in the destruction of elephant habitats.
Assam has the country's second-highest elephant population. The human-elephant conflict for space and resources had also assumed an alarming proportion in the state in 2022, raising concerns among conservationists.
Over the last ten years, a total of 900 elephants have been killed as their search for land intensified in the state. The casualties mostly occur during the dry season, when the animals move out of their habitat in search of food and water.
The writer is a senior independent journalist covering the Northeast.
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