18 Wild Elephants Killed In Assam After A Lightning Strikes Their Herd

In a tragic incident, at least 18 elephants were killed in Assam's Nagaon district after being struck by a massive 'lightning'.

Forest and wildlife officials said that the incident occurred on Wednesday night in the mountainous Kandali Proposed Reserve Forest (PRF) in central Assam.

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According to Assam Forest Minister Parimal Suklabaidya, preliminary investigation suggests that the elephants died due to electrocution caused by lightning. However, the exact reason can only be confirmed after post mortem.

"It is a very saddening incident. This has never happened before in the Assam forest. Today afternoon, when it was raining, a thunder struck and 18 elephants died," Suklabaidya told ANI.

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'Wild elephants was screaming unnaturally'

Villagers living near the hill claimed that the herd of the wild elephants was screaming unnaturally throughout the night and the cries faded gradually as the day broke.

According to Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Amit Sahay, the area is very remote, near the Nagaon-Karbi Anglong border, and the team of official could reach there on Thursday afternoon.

"It was found that carcasses were lying in two groups. Fourteen were lying atop the hill and four were found at the bottom of the hill," he said.

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He also added that the reason behind such a huge number of elephants getting killed together is because usually, elephants stay in huddles in case of storms or rain.

"Probably, at that very moment, lightning struck and the entire group got killed. I have asked the concerned DFO to provide more information like how many males or females were there. It will take some more time," he said.

A very sad demise of at least 18 elephants including calves, reportedly hit by lightning, in Kandoli PRF in Kathiatoli Range of Nagaon Division. Investigation ordered. A team of veterinarians and other experts and forest officers reaching site early tomorrow morning. pic.twitter.com/T6Nft0rtbR

¡ª Chief Minister Assam (@CMOfficeAssam) May 13, 2021

Wildlife conservationist Bibhuti Lahkar termed the incident shocking and said such cases are very rare and unheard of in the Northeast.

"In open areas of some places like the African grassland such accidents have taken place, but rarely in India. If we consider Eastern India, then one such incident took place at Jaldapara in West Bengal around 12-15 years ago, but the number of deaths was not so high," he said.

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Though officials are attributing the reasons to lightning from preliminary investigation, it is too early to arrive at a conclusion before the post-mortem as the number of elephants dying is "simply too high", said Lahkar, the head of elephant conservation at NGO Aaranyak.

"If they really died due to lightning, then these are signals of climate change. Our climate has become erratic, thunderstorm, rain -- everything has become erratic. If we really want to arrest this, we need to save our nature," he added.