Raipur (Chhattisgarh): Raipur administration booked five people in Gersha village of Dharamjaigarh forest division of Raigad district allegedly involved in the death of elephant death due to electrocution.
The five accused include three employees of the electricity department and two farmers. While the two accused farmers have been sent to jail, the employees of the department have also been booked for illegally providing electrical connections for the irrigation pump to the accused farmers and erasing evidence from the scene of the incident.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Rakesh Chaturvedi said that an elephant was killed in Gersa Beat village of Dharamjigarh forest division due to electrocution. After the top officials of the forest department reached the spot they found a villager had allegedly laid an illegal electricity connection to operate a borewell at his farm.
The elephant came in contact with the live wire at the farm and died of electrocution, he said.
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Earlier, Bilaspur Chief Conservator of Forests Anil Soni and Dharamjigarh DFO Priyanka Pandey have questioned the two accused farmers regarding the illegal electric connection for irrigation pumps and directed action against them under the Wildlife Act.
During this period, the Forest department officials found that illegally laid wire was removed from the electric pole by P. Kujur and other personnel of the electrical department following which the department took action against the employees of the electricity department for erasing the evidence.
In another incident, an elephant calf was found dead in a marshland near Urputi (Mongri) village in the submergence area of Gangrel reservoir in Dhamtari, located around 100 km from the state capital, a forest official said.
Also read: Elephant calf found dead in Chhattisgarh
The calf was part of the herd that entered the forest along the border of Dhamtari and Kanker districts from the neighbouring Gariaband district on June 7, he said. “The elephant might have got stuck in the mud while going to drink water, he said.
Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh Forest Minister Mohammad Akbar constituted a panel to investigate the deaths and directed the panel to submit its report in a month. The committee, led by retired principal chief conservator of forests K.C. Bevarta, is tasked with probing the reasons and circumstances leading to the death of the elephants, lapses at any stage, and determining accountability.
As per state government estimates, between 2014-15 and 2018-19, 510 elephants and 2,361 humans were killed due to human-elephant conflicts. Several elephants die each year due to electrocution, train accidents, poaching and poisoning.
