A female elephant died after coming in contact with a live wire near Kacharu village in Sundargarh district, forest officials said today.
The elephant was electrocuted apparently after an 11 KV electric pole collapsed bringing down the wire when a herd of about 12 elephants were passing through the area on the bank of river Koel last night, said Divisional Forest Officer (Rourkela), Sanjeet Kumar.
On the way, adjacent to the jungle, there are electric poles under Rajeev Gandhi Rural Electrification programme.
"The elephants probably tried to scratch their bodies at the poles and one of these broke under the impact. The broken portion was hanging at a height of around 8-10 feet bringing down the live wires. The elephant came in contact with the live wires and died," the DFO said.
The pachyderms have been roaming in the vicinity for the past 15 days and had stayed in Brahamni reserve forest under Kuanrmunda forest range yesterday.
The incident occurred when the herd came out of the jungle and were moving towards Kacharu village, Kumar said.
