India saw 600 elephants die by electrocution over 10 years

As many as 600 elephants died due to electrocution across the country in 10 years from 2009 to 2019, data from the Union Ministry of Environment has revealed. Of these, 116 deaths took place in Karnataka, 117 in Odisha and 105 in Assam.

Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Maharashtra are the only states which recorded zero such deaths, the data showed.

According to a report in The Indian Express, former principal chief conservator of forests BK Singh said that 75 per cent of cases, those responsible for the electrocution are never arrested. “I do not remember any case in the last one decade where anyone has been prosecuted for the electrocution of an elephant,” he said.

The report also quoted a senior official from the Karnataka forest department as saying that “these numbers are quite high. The elephants come in contact with electric fence lines which are put up by private landowners. We do register cases against them as most of these are illegally set up. The exact figure of the deaths of the jumbos owing to electrocution in the last two years will be collated”.

He admitted to unnatural elephant deaths in Karnataka in the last few years. “The numbers have come down but annually, we come across 5-6 cases of deaths of jumbos due to electrocution. In Kodagu, four jumbos died in July this year. While in October 2020, two male elephants died inside the Bannerghatta National Park in Bengaluru, four died in other parts of the state in September last year,” he reportedly said.

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The central scheme ‘Project Elephant’ was launched in 1992 to protect the jumbos, their habitat and corridors, and to check man-elephant conflict. It provides financial and technical assistance to elephant range states and Union Territories.

Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ashwini Kumar Choubey – to a question raised by BJP Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly – said “the scheme has a component for ex-gratia relief in case of human death/injury and damage to property and crop loss. The ministry had constituted a task force for suggesting eco-friendly measures to mitigate impacts of power transmission lines and other infrastructure on elephants and other wildlife. The states, UTs and power-transmission agencies have been requested to take the necessary steps for compliance of rules and regulations and to maintain minimum ground clearance while laying transmission lines for minimising death of elephants due to electrocution”.