(IN): Live wire kills baby elephant in Assam

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<http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091209/jsp/northeast/story_11838735.jsp>Live

wire kills baby elephant in Assam

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* A STAFF REPORTER

 

Guwahati, Dec. 8: Power cables have turned into deathtraps for elephants in

Assam with a calf becoming the latest victim of electrocution.

 

A forest official said the calf, which was probably four years old, came

into contact with the cable after the herd to which it belonged uprooted an

electric post at Phukonbari village in Jangimukha under Jorhat forest

division around midnight last night. This herd of about 15 elephants has

been creating panic among villagers of Jangimukha along the Brahmaputra in

upper Assam for about a month now.

 

“Last night, the herd descended on Phukonbari and devoured standing crop.

While returning, it pulled down a cable post. The cables came into contact

with the calf and a few others. The 440volt current was too much for the

baby elephant and it probably died on the spot,” the official said.

 

Babul Bora, a villager of Phukonbari, said over phone that he woke up on

hearing anguished cries of elephants. When he came out of his house to see

what was happening, he saw a herd of elephants through a thick fog. “All the

members of the herd were acting wild and crying out loudly. I also saw a

baby elephant lying on the ground.”

 

When he saw an electric post lying on the ground near the area where the

elephants were, he realised what had happened. “I rushed to the transformer

through which current is supplied to the village and removed the fuse.”

 

Some other villagers said they saw a big elephant, probably the mother,

carry away the calf, which had probably died by then. “The carcass of the

male calf was recovered from another paddy field about 500 metres away from

the incident site this morning. It was left behind by the herd when it

realised that the calf had died,” the official said. More than 20 elephants

have been electrocuted in the state this year.

 

In another incident, Lachi Gogoi, 24, was injured last night when a stray

bullet, fired by army personnel based at a camp near Gibbon Wildlife

Sanctuary in Jorhat district to scare away a herd of elephants, hit him on

the chest.

 

In Sonitpur district, John Topno, 54, was trampled to death when a herd of

elephants attacked the labour quarters of Borjuli tea estate at Rangapara

last night.

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