Tirupati: An elephant was found electrocuted at an agriculture farm in Kiramanda village of Bangarupalem mandal in Chittoor district on Friday. The female pachyderm strayed into an agricultural field and got herself entangled with the electric wires of the farm’s water pump set, locals and forest officials said.
According to divisional forest officer (DFO) of Chittoor West division, Chaitanya Reddy, the death occurred in the farm near Kiramanda under Kolladimadugu forest area. The 35 to 40-year-old elephant, separated from a herd, entered the field and tried to chew the electric supply wires of the water pump set. The electric shock from it killed it instantly.
Forest officials reached the site and held an inquest. A team of veterinary doctors arrived at the spot and completed the autopsy before the elephant was cremated on the outskirts of the forested village after a puja by the villagers and forest staff.
The forest department said it would probe the circumstances that led to the death of the tusker.
A herd of wild elephants from the reserve forests of Tamil Nadu had strayed into the Koundinya sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh a few days ago and remained in the region, occasionally raiding crops. Farmers and villagers in the forested villages were living in fear as they were frequently witnessing pachyderms crossing roads and roaming into human habitations.
Forest officials expressed concern at the increasing incidents of electrocution of wild elephants in the Koundinya sanctuary and its surroundings. In a similar incident, a male elephant, aged about 30, was killed due to contact with an illegal live electric fence put up around a farmland at Nagireddypalli in V Kota Mandal, on Nov 2.
In the last decade, close to two dozen wild elephants had been electrocuted in the combined Chittoor district.
