In the raging man-elephant conflict in Goalpara district of Lower Assam a full grown male elephant got electrocuted at Mariyampur village near Athiabari reserve under Rongjuli range forest this morning.
The incident occurred when the pachyderm pressed itself against a pair of electricity posts. The electricity posts suddenly got uprooted and the high voltage live wires killed the animal. “We could hear the wailing sound of the dying elephant from our home which is five hundred metres from the scene. Our people are very sad at the death despite the harassment we face because invading wild elephants”, informed Bipul Rabha, a local youth.
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The forest department buried the animal near the scene with due process. “We have conducted the postmortem and buried it. However, we have found that the jumbo had deep injuries in its hind legs. It was a man-inflicted injury by sharp weapons like spear and the elephant probably tried to get relief from the injury by rubbing the cut with the electricity posts”, said Balen Das, ranger of Rongjuli range forest.
It may be mentioned that this season of harvesting of Sali paddy has witnessed worse man-elephant conflict and several people have died at because attack by wild elephants. The agricultural areas like Rongjuli, Dhupdhara, Mornoi, Harimura, Agia, Balijana have been the worst affected. Four persons including a mother and her eight-year-old daughter were killed in the district by wild elephants during the last 36 hours.