Dhenkanal: Forest officials recovered the decomposed carcasses of three elephants, who were found electrocuted behind a defunct iron rod factory in Borapada village under Gobindpur panchayat of Sadar block on the outskirts here Saturday.
The deceased pachyderms include two female elephants and a calf. Preliminary inquiries suggested that the pachyderms were killed after an overhead low-lying transmission wire drawn to the factory got snapped and fell on them.
The forest officials while recovering the carcass were left panicked when trumpeting by pachyderms inside the jungle shook the area.
It was alleged that pachyderm might have died two days back as their carcasses were emanating highly offensive smell confirming their decomposition
However, the forest officials had no inkling about the death of the pachyderms and only came to know of this after locals informed them. The offensive smell emanated from the carcasses initially made it difficult for the forest officials to step into the area.
State energy minister Prafulla Kumar Mallick, regional chief conservator of forests Sudarshan Panda, tehsildar Saroj Kumar Panda, assistant conservator Jeetendra Das, Sadar ranger Bibhuti Bhushan Pattnaik, Town police IIC Abhinab Dalua and his Sadar counterpart Sasmita Barik visited the spot and took stock of the situation.
On being informed, forest and Enzen officials reached the spot and recovered the carcasses by disconnecting the power supply in the area.
After reports surfaced, hundreds of villagers made a beeline to the area to get a glimpse of the deceased pachyderms.
Forest officials said among the deceased elephants one of the females was six-year-old while the other was 15 years old. The calf was of six months. They claimed that the deceased animals were part of a 33-member herd which stayed put in the area for last few days.
Sources said that 17 elephants have been electrocuted during last seven years in Dhenkanal district while nine died in last four months.
Locals have questioned the power supply to the factory despite the unit becoming non-operational for 10 years.
When contacted, RCCF Panda expressed his grief over the deaths of elephants, stating action will be taken against forest officials concerned for the pachyderm’s death. He also assured to register a case against power distribution company Enzen for its negligence.
Mallick while visiting the spot asked the forest and CESU officials to probe the elephant deaths and submit a report to him while assuring to take action on the basis of probe report. PNN
