A 12-year-old sub adult female elephant from the wilds of Tamil Nadu forests was electrocuted at a remote tribal hamlet - Pulimadugu Thanda, 45 km from Kuppam in the early hours of Tuesday, after it came in contact with a live power line in the fields meant for wild boars.
The victim was part of an 8-member herd of elephants which returned to Ramakuppam forests in the district in the early hours, a couple of days after they were driven into the TN forests by a 100-member forest squad personnel following a week-long operation.
The hamlet residents said that they heard the agonized trumpeting of the victim with chorus of the herd from 3.00 am till 5.00 am. The terrified residents informed the forest personnel, who could only reach there in the morning. Fortunately, the live wire after getting snapped was wrapped around the victim's leg, thus preventing other animals from falling prey to the electrical noose.
Divisional Forest Officer (Chittoor), T. Chakrapani, who rushed to spot monitored the situation and watchers were deployed all round Ramakuppam mandal to watch the movement of the herd members, in view of their possible return to the tragic spot.
A farmer, Chinna Naik, in whose field the elephant was electrocuted went absconding since morning.
A team of veterinary doctors from Tirupati reached the spot and conducted the postmortem after shifting the carcass from the fields to a kilometer deep into the forest. The villagers and forest guards performed pujas to the carcass there before finishing its burial.
It may be noted here that a gigantic male elephant was electrocuted in the same forest beat in October 2014. As many as 19 elephants were killed in Ramakuppam and Kuppam belt due to electrocution during the last three decades.
