A tusker was electrocuted to death near an Entertainment Park on the highway in the Badkot range of Dehradun forest division on Thursday. Though wildlife activists allege that the lack of Forest department’s pro-activeness is responsible for the death of this pachyderm, the department officials state that this death was accidental and that necessary measures are being taken to avoid such mishaps.
Talking to The Pioneer, the Dehradun Divisional Forest Officer Sushant Patnaik said that the pachyderm was electrocuted when it caught hold of a wire to a bulb with its trunk. “I inspected the site myself and found no signs of foul play in this death which was caused by an accident. However, to avert danger from low-hanging overhead power cables, we will request the Electricity department to do the needful,” he added.
However, wildlife activists state that the department is not doing the needful to avert such elephant deaths. “The department should regularly monitor the areas where the probability of human-elephant confrontation is high. Department staff should raise awareness among the villagers in areas frequented by elephants about the things to do and not to do.”
“However, whenever an elephant is electrocuted, the department takes the usual measures by undertaking patrols and asking the Power department to raise the height of low-hanging overhead power cables. In spite of this, such deaths are not rare. Apart from such accidental deaths, some are also caused by elephants and other wildlife getting entangled in barbed wires which have been electrified by farmers around their fields to keep animals out,” said an activist.
In view of frequent human-elephant conflict in the Terai region of Uttarakhand, the Forest department is undertaking various measures like getting trenches dug around settlements, erecting solar fencing and getting safety walls constructed around villages frequented by elephants.