Madikeri: Even before the tragic electrocution of two elephants about a fortnight ago in Siddapura in Virajpet taluk of Madikeri could fade from public memory, another ghastly incident of four female elephants-two adults and two calves- getting electrocuted in a coffee plantation in the same region at Yedoor village on Monday night has come to light.
The four ill-fated jumbos got separated from a herd before they were electrocuted. Among the dead, forest officials estimate the age of one to be around 45, another, 40, while the calves are around 5 and 3 years of age.
Forest officials attribute the tragic incident to the jumbos stepping on a snapped live power cable at the plantation belonging to Bopanda Vijay while Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation Limited (CESC) engineers suspect that a branch might have snapped the power cable with the elephants walking onto it resulted in the tragedy. “No doubt the elephant deaths are due to electric shock,” said CESC engineers.
However, forest officials are yet to conduct a necropsy on the carcasses.
The carcasses were noticed by plantation workers at around 2 pm on Tuesday who alerted their owner who in turn informed forest officials.
Though forest officials do not suspect any foul play behind the deaths, some villagers have reason to doubt the official claim as there was no power supply after rains started to lash the region on Monday evening. Besides, the power line carries low voltage electricity which can light only bulbs in households, they claim.
Responding to the charge, a CESC engineer told Deccan Chronicle that a 230-volt power line passes through the plantation and 45 volts power is enough to kill the elephants. Officials are however verifying details of power supply since there were frequent snags at Virajpet sub-station for the past couple of days and there was power disruption in Ammathi region on Monday night.
Meanwhile, Chief Conservator of Forests, Manojkumar said that a case will be booked against CESC for negligence and added that to prevent such incidents in future, he has convened a meeting with the CESC Managing Director and forest officials for better coordination between the two departments.
