Elephants continued to die in Odisha by coming in contact with live wire with the Forest and Environment department reporting six electrocution deaths of jumbos within last three months.
Odisha, which is among few States where man-elephant conflicts has assumed critical proportion, has lost 431 elephants since 2009-10. During the same time, 448 humans were killed by marauding elephants in different parts of the State.
“While sagging electric wire caused many elephant deaths in the past, there has been a change in the trend. Of late, some villagers in forest fringe habitats have been very active in setting up traps for other wild animals. Unfortunately, elephants walk into the trap and are getting killed,” said Angul-based environmentalist Prasanna Kumar Behera.
Mr. Behera, who has been raising awareness against elephant poaching in coordination with the Forest and Environment department, said lack of stringent action against offenders has emboldened them and traps are still being laid.
“Apart from strengthening mechanism for collecting intelligence input for preventing deaths due to traps, the Forest department must establish proper coordination with power utilities so that electrocution deaths could be checked,” he maintained.Out of 431 elephant deaths since 2009-10, 63 have been categorised as electrocution deaths. This year, 22 elephant deaths have been reported. Six are due to electrocution. In 2011, two full-grown elephants had died when they came in contact with sagging live wire in Telekoi of Keonjhar district. Subsequently, energy department had been frequently reminded about strengthening power infrastructure so that precious elephant lives could be saved. But there has been no visible improvement in the infrastructure.
