The Wildlife Department of Baleswar is taking no chance on the matter of jumbo safety, especially after a tusker, aged 20-25, died due to electrocution by coming in contact with a sagging 11 KV live wire under Deuli range on Tuesday night.
DFO Biswaraj Panda said the department while on the one hand urged the Energy Department to rectify the sagging lines after handing over a list of vulnerable areas, it also urged the latter to resort to power shutdown where they are not rectified. Besides, it alerted the railway authorities as a large number of jumbos are roaming near rail lines bordering Basta in the Rasgobindapur range of Mayurbhanj.
“There are about 58 pachyderms which have sneaked into Nilgiri since Thursday. They are currently at Bhalukasuni reserve forest under Nilgiri range. The sagging lines at different points are rectified and in the points where they are not rectified the Nesco was asked to cut power supply,” said Panda.
“Similarly, to prevent possible casualties due to train accidents, the authorities (rail) have been alerted about the presence of jumbos in the vicinity of lines. On Tuesday, a herd containing about 34 elephants while were about 200 metres away from the lines, today they are at nearly 2 km distance from the lines. However, the rail authorities are asked to slow down and blow horns between Amarda and Rupsa. Besides, the staff of Jaleswar and Chandipur are deployed to prevent casualties attributed to rail,” he said.
SE, Electrical, BS Parida stated that the sagging lines at nearly 50 identified points were rectified. The ground clearance for the HT line should be at least 13.6 metre as per norms.
Meanwhile, the migrant jumbos of Jharkhand’s Dalma Sanctuary after entering Nilgiri are causing massive damages to ready- to- harvest paddy crops and dwelling houses. The Forest Department said that it was maintaining a close vigil on their movements.