Baripada/Betanoti, June 8: An elephant, aged about 35 years, died after coming in contact with an 11 KV livewire at Jhadajamda under Betanoti forest range in Mayurbhanj district late Wednesday night, a report said.
Its death has triggered a blame game between the forest department and the energy department.
According to reports, a herd of seven to eight elephants from Similipal has been wandering about in Betanoti range for the last one and a half months.
Eleven KV transmission lines are drawn in the area from Chhancha to Badajoda. One of the elephants, a tusker, is believed to have tried to touch the high-tension wire with its trunk and got electrocuted.
However, now a row has erupted over the transmission lines in the area. Usually, transmission lines are drawn at a height of 7 ft from the ground. But Baripada DFO Sanjay Kumar Swain claimed that the high tension wire has been hanging at 2.7-metre height from the ground. “The elephant was 8-ft high and it came in contact with the wire and died,” Swain reasoned.
Squarely blaming the energy department for the death of the animal, the DFO stated that a case will be filed against the officials of the energy department and action will be taken against them.
Swain also stated that though officials of the energy department were intimated about the incident, no official ever visited the spot. The carcass of the elephant will be buried after post-mortem, he added.
On the other hand, the energy department has passed the buck on the forest department, stating that a decision was taken at a recent meeting of the officials of the both the departments to share advanced information about the presence of elephants. The energy department alleged it was not intimated about the movement of the elephants in the area.
SDO Rajesh Ranjan Ghadei said, “The forest department says the animals have been moving about in the area for the last one and a half months, but the energy department was not alerted. Special steps would have been taken if the department was intimated.”
Ghadei also claimed that the area where the elephant died is not a part of the elephant corridor while the height of the transmission has been increased.
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