A 10-year-old robust male elephant was found lying dead at Sarya village under Mohammadganj forest range in Palamu. The elephant is said to have died due to electrocution. The death is said to have occurred at 3 AM on Monday.
RCCF Palamu Mohan Lal said the DFO Medininagar Rahul Kumar and Mohammadganj ranger A K Singh have reached the place of occurrence.
Lal said the elephant was said to have a rubbing with a nearby electricity pole which led to the breaking down of an 11,000 volt over head wire which fell and the elephant in contact with this wire died of shock.
DFO Rahul Kumar told Lal, “The broken wire on the ground was feet away from the carcass of the elephant. The wire was not found entangling the body.”
Sources said again Rahul Kumar has told Lal that the body does not look any charred when charring is a classic sign of electrocution but the rubbing signs on the electricity pole are there too big and visible.
Lal said Kumar, who has examined the body of the elephant, has definitely spoken about wire not near the carcass nor any dis colouration of the carcass found any visible except that elephant’s rubbing the electricity pole is there.
The RCCF said the post mortem has been conducted and its viscera would be sent to Ranchi for analysis to ascertain as to how it died.
On being asked about any foul play or this elephant getting any victim of man elephant conflict (MEC) Lal said, “ One cannot jump to any conclusion. There is the broken electricity wire of 11,000 volt. This cannot be overlooked.”
This elephant had only enemies in men. It had won it by itself as for the last 3 or 4 months it had made everyone crying like it had killed a dozen cattle, killed two people, destroyed a parked car, damaged bikes and worse of all destroyed acres and acres of standing crops in blocks like Pandu, Haidernagar, Bishrampur etc.
SDPO Hussainabad Vijay Kumar said his police officials have also found broken 11,000 volt wire and the body some feet away from it but signs of this elephant rubbing an electricity pole are too speaking and loud.
RCCF Lal said its two tusks have been extracted and preserved while burial of it has been done with lots of lime and salt.
The SDPO said there was a problem with its burial as the farmer Sanjay Mahto near whose arhar pulse field this elephant fell dead, was not ready for its burial on his field.
He said police had to do a lot of persuasion to get him agreed to its burial on his field as here is no forest land in the nearby nor any GM land as well.
Sources said as elephant is seen as the carrier of Lord Ganesha and it had small tusks some religiosity too was behind the farmer’s reluctance to the location of its burial which the police got over.
