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Six wild
elephants died of electrocution on October 19 as they were
crossing through a paddy field in Chondon Nokat, near Aidoba
about 45 kilometres from Tura in West Garo Hills district of
Meghalaya. This is a first case in the recent times were six
jumbos died at the same time.
Among these six jumbos, three were young pachyderm and three
were adults. The incident took place at around 9 pm, when the
herd was crossing through this area. This is the crossing zone
of the elephants.
The dead is said to be due to electrocution by high tension
voltage wire as the elephants were found dead all together near
the electric pole in the paddy field.
It was learnt that the elephants while crossing this area might
have used the pole to scratch their body and during the process
they might have got electrocuted. This may be because the pole
was week and the wire may have come off leading to cross
connection and the elephants had to fall in the trap of high
tension voltage.
The paddy
fields lies between two villages - Chondon Nokat and Chondon
Para. The forest in this area is the habitation of this wild
elephants. The area is not under reserve forest and is owned by
the village i.e. the right is bestowed upon the Nokma (head man)
of the land.
Among the six,
two were adult female and one female in its adolescence and two
were male calf and one female calf. Along this area there are
about 25 wild elephants. In a similar incident in 2004, 2005,
2006 a dozen elephants have lost their lives.
In January
2004, four elephants died in West Garo Hills, when a herd was
passing through a paddy field. The ill-fated elephants hit a
weak electric pole standing in the middle of the paddy field and
got electrocuted.
Again, two wild
tuskers were killed due to electrocution by high-tension voltage
wire in villages bordering along the international Indo-Bangla
on August 4 and 11 respectively in 2006. The villages are
Piljigre and Purakhasia.
The elephants
in Garo Hills are dying due to electrocution in the paddy fields
in many similar incidents in different areas across the region.
It is not understood why enough measures are not taken in
putting up electric pole in areas close to elephant habitats and
their crossing zone.
The jhum
practice and the ever declining number of forest cover are
leading to destruction of elephant habitats. In such
circumstance, the jumbos have to move around in search of food
and sometimes as they encroaches human habitation it has lead to
conflict killing human lives.
In month of
June 2006, three people died at Teldala village near this area
when the elephants had to come down to village in search of
food.
In this
man-elephant conflict, several houses and paddy fields were also
destroyed. Among them was a pregnant mother with her two young
children. The pregnant woman killed was maimed and only one leg
and hand could be traced out. The baby inside the womb was lying
dead.
The incident
occurred when a heard of wild elephants entered into Chandapara
village, destroying the houses and paddy fields. They later
entered the adjoining village – Teldalla again destroying
several houses and the paddy fields. The wildlife experts
believe that the declining forest cover is the reason for these
conflicts. They also observe that it is a threat for those
people living in the forest or near it.
Though
organization like the West Garo Hills Community Resource
Management Society (WGHCRMS) and Samrakshan are doing a job in
this line in protection and conservation of elephant corridors
in Garo Hills, still more efforts are needed, an
environmentalist opined.
The
decomposition of an adult elephants costs roughly around Rs.
5000 and in this case the wild life department had to spend
around Rs. 40,000 for the disposing of the Carcass. The issue of
electric pole was earlier taken up with the MeSEB department, a
forest official informed.
October 24, 2007
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