Elephant in Odisha's Keonjhar Jungle Dies from Electrocution

On Sunday, an elephant's carcass was discovered in a jungle in the Keonjhar district of Odisha, according to forest authorities. According to the forest authority, the sub-adult elephant perished after getting into touch with an 11 KV live wire. On Sunday morning, forest authorities flocked to the scene after learning about it from the villagers. The carcass will be subjected to a post-mortem by veterinarians. They claimed that the pachyderm only had one tooth.

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Keonjhar Division H D Dhanraj told PTI, "Prima facie it is an electrical death, the jumbo got in touch with stay wire, supporting the electric pole, which was charged causing the death of tusker. "Because the insulator was damaged, the stay wire became charged since the electric pole was weak; it was intended to be fixed, but regrettably that was not done, the event may have been averted," stated the DFO.

Environmentalists in the state are now concerned about an increase in elephant deaths. Speaking with PTI, animal and forest rights activist Biswajit Mohanty requested the immediate arrest of electrical authorities for failing to implement safety measures that led to the death of the elephant.

Odisha Forest and Environment Minister Pradip Kumar Amat reported that as many as 784 elephants perished in the state between 2012–2012 and 2021–2022, in a written response to the state Legislature on March 14.