Even as Indians continue to gush over the Oscar success of Elephant Whispers, the country lost yet another jumbo.
A wild tusker was electrocuted to death near Kuruvamma temple, Periyanaickenpalayam, in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore district, early on Saturday.
According to reports, the incident occurred when the elephant rubbed its body against an electric post which fell down on him along with an overhead live power line near the Periyanickenpalayam forest range, leading to its on-the-spot death.
This is the fifth wild elephant to be killed in Tamil Nadu due to electrocution.
On March 7, three female elephants were electrocuted at Kali Kavindar Kottai in Dharmapuri district after they came in contact with an illegal electric fence erected by a local farmer to keep wild boars away.
On March 18, yet another wild elephant, this time a tusker, was killed in Dharmapuri after it touched a low-lying electric line electrocuting it instantly. The shocking death was caught on camera by locals.
The five electrocution deaths in a month once again highlight how dangerous low-lying power supply lines are.
In fact, electrocution from low-lying or broken power lines and illegal electric fences are the biggest cause of unnatural elephant deaths in India, with Tamil Nadu accounting for the third-highest toll in the country.
Following the recent elephant deaths in the state, the Madras High Court on Thursday inquired Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) on why low-lying power lines were not removed even after court orders. The court had directed the Tangedco senior officials to report before the court on April 19 regarding the precautions taken to prevent wild animals from being electrocuted.
In December 2022, the Ministry of environment, forest and climate changes (MoEF) informed the Lok Sabha that electrocution continues to be the biggest threat to the elephants in India, as 198 of them died due to this in the last five years.
According to the Ministry of Environment and Forest information, between 2019-20 and 2021-22, many elephants were killed for various reasons, including electrocution and others. The data said that a total of 198 elephants were killed by electrocution across the country, 41 by trains, 27 by poachers and 8 by poisoning during the same period.
So far as the deaths of elephants are concerned, out of the 198 elephant deaths caused by electrocution, Assam recorded 36, Odisha 30 and Tamil Nadu 29. Assam (15 out of 41) also had the highest number of elephant deaths caused by trains, followed by Odisha (8) and West Bengal (5). Poaching deaths were the highest in Meghalaya (11), and poisoning deaths in Assam (7).
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