Tusker electrocuted in Numaligarh

 FROM A CORRESPONDENT

NUMALIGARH, May 29: Sensation prevailed here after a male  elephant died after being electrocuted  at Bokial Tiniali here in Golaghat district last night. Local people found the carcass of the elephant this morning.  Sources said  the pachyderm which was consuming bamboo plants got electrocuted when an wire from a transformer came into contact with the elephant. “The accident happened when a bamboo plant the elephant was consuming came into contact with a live electric line from a transformer,” sources said. Forest officials reached the spot and inspected the place. A team of veteriry doctors would carry out postmortem.

Deadly turf wars between humans and hungry elephants in Assam have reached alarming proportions. Shrinking forests and encroachment on elephant territory by people have forced the animals to stray into human settlements in the quest of food. Elephants have killed nearly 240 people in Assam in the past five years while 265 elephants have died during the same period, many of them being victims of retaliation by angry humans. Satellite imagery shows that between, villagers encroached on some 280,000 hectares of thick forests in Assam, according to authorities. The attitude of people towards elephants has become less tolerant as the pachyderms have become an increasing problem for villagers. Villagers often poison the marauding elephants, while in the past they drove them away by beating drums or bursting firecrackers, said officials. Assam has India’s largest population of Asiatic elephants, estimated at around 5,300.