TURA, May 14: A female wild elephant, which was part of a herd that had been roaming through the Garo Hills region, was killed on Monday night after it came in contact with a low-hanging overhead electrical wire near the village of Garobadha in South West Garo Hills.
The elephant was part of a herd that had been moving through the Wakhagre-Doldegre area for several weeks.
The villagers informed that the pachyderms had moved towards the Garobadha-Selsella road in recent times.
The incident apparently took place when the elephant was trying to cross the village of Chokingre on the same road in an area, which also falls under the elephant corridor.
The low-hanging wire, which the elephant came in contact with and got subsequently electrocuted, was a high-tension wire (11KV).
Meanwhile, a post-mortem has been conducted by the Wildlife Department.
Following the incident, the DFO of Wildlife, Rupankar Marak, said that he had written to the Executive Engineer of Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Limited (MePDCL) to urgently conduct a thorough inspection of 11 KV lines in the district.
“Any sagging lines must be rectified as early as possible to eliminate the risk of elephants and other wild animals that roam the region,” informed the DFO.
Electrocution of wild animals, including elephants among others, has become a common site in the region mainly due to the laxity reportedly shown by the Power department, which, even after beign informed about the low-hanging wires, takes ages to rectify the situation.
