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Farmer on the run after death of elephants in his sugarcane field

Foresters say his electric fence was illegal

Chamarajanagar: It’s hard to say who was at fault for the death of two elephants in a sugarcane field in the Satyamangala forests yesterday.

The two elephants, a six-year-old bull and a five-year-old cow, touched the electric fencing erected by farmer Karupaswamy of Karalavadi village around his sugarcane field.

Their carcasses were found by rangers of the Satyamanagala forest division of Tamil Nadu.

Karalavadi falls on the periphery of the Satyamangala Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu, which shares a boundary with Biligiri Ranga Hills, also a tiger reserve, in Chamarajnagar in Karnataka.

The foresters conducted an autopsy—called a necropsy in forest parlance—on the carcasses and tried to insinuate that farmer Karupaswamy’s electric fencing is illegal. They have book a case against the man, who is at large from the law.

The forest officials are now planning to write to senior officials in the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board saying local staffers were negligent in checking illegal electrification of fields.

Local villagers said farmers espied the two elephants festing on the feasting on the sugarcane, and tried to scare them off. In panic, the jumbos came in contact with a live wire and died.

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