An elephant was electrocuted in Balbhadrapur village of Jamgaon forest circle about 30 kms from district headquarter Raigarh, informed Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Raigarh Rajesh Pandey on Friday. This is the second case of electrocution of an elephant in one month at Raigarh.
The DFO talking with The Pioneer over phone said “the male elephant of age about 5 to 6 years was electrocuted in a private jungle,” and added that the body of elephant was spotted on Friday morning.
Meanwhile, forest sources informed that it that the live wire was placed intentionally for killing the pachyderm. The elephant would have succumbed on Thursday night after coming into contact with wire carrying high electric current which was placed in a large area.
To the query over action taken over the owner of land, the DFO said the landlord of the private jungle is yet to be identified and claimed that proper action would be taken against the land owner.
According to forest department officers presently there are about 70 to 80 elephants roaming in Raigarh region who have killed 3 persons this year so far. Notably the northern part of state, comprising Surguja, Korba, Raigarh, Jashpur and Koriya districts, are witnessing man-elephant conflict for past two decades. According to recent census conducted by forest department presently there are about 212 elephants in Chhattisgarh. Every year more and more wild elephants are entering into Chhattisgarh from neighbouring Odisha and Jharkhand states due to constant loss of their natural habitats in those areas.
It may be remained that on September 11 this month an elephant was also electrocuted at Gharghoda forests about 50 kms from divisional headquarter Raigarh.
Two persons had been arrested in this connection informed DFO Raigarh. “Kamal and Surendra resident of the district have charged under relevant Sections of Wildlife Protection Act 1972,” DFO said.
State Govt completely indifferent to killing of elephants, says Amalendu’
Amalendu Mishra, wild life film maker and also member of committee for development of forest for project tiger in Guru Ghasidas National Park citing media reports say that so far 4 elephants have been killed in Raigarh district alone this year. He said inaction of forest department to prevent killing of elephant could spark a dangerous trend for killing of the giants. “Elephant are an important part of eco-system and for managing which neither the State Government nor the forest department have any will or plan,” charged Amalendu.