An adult female elephant was found dead in Upparjhar -Phatamunda road near Kuimunda, around 24km away from here. Initial reports suggested that the elephant was electrocuted as an electricity pole fell down on it while moving in the area. The forest officials dismissed allegations of poaching.
On a tipoff, forest officials, including DFO Balangir Sameer Satpathy, ACF BC Roul and others rushed to the spot and recovered the carcass. “More details would be known after the postmortem report of elephant was available,” clarified Forest Department sources.
It would be pertinent to mention here that in October 2017, a joint coordination meeting of Wesco officials and forest officials of Balangir and Subarnapur districts was held at the DFO office. In the meeting, several vulnerable points where elephant are prone to electrocution were identified.
However, a proposal for corrective actions is now gathering dust in the PCCF office.