Elephant electrocuted in Chhattisgarh; farmers under scanner

An elephant was electrocuted after it came into contact with a live wire near a farm in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district, forest officials said today.
The 8-year-old male pachyderm had entered the field area and died after coming in contact with the wire, allegedly laid by farmers in Imlidih village of Gharghoda region last night, Raigarh Division Forest Official AK Pandey said.
"The postmortem report has revealed the elephant died of electrocution," he said, adding farmers of the village are being questioned and some arrests will be made soon.
Pandey told PTI that this is the second elephant death in past two months in the region due to electrocution whereas, three persons died in separate incidents of man-elephant conflict.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, a group of 50 wild elephants destroyed over 50 acres of crop in Raigarh forest division last night, a senior forest official said.
Official said appropriate compensation will be given to farmers after assessment of loss is done.

Thickly-forested northern region, comprising Surguja, Korba, Raigarh, Jashpur and Korea districts, is notorious for man-elephant skirmishes.
The region has witnessed several killings of tribals and widespread damages to houses and crops by rogue elephant in recent years.
State forest department has notified 1,14,334.28 hectares area comprising Tamor Pingla and Samersot sanctuary in Sarguja and Badalkhol in Jashpur as elephant reserve.