Elephant found dead in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar, seventh jumbo to die in less than 3 months
Uttarakhand government had recently reported that elephant numbers crossed the 2,000 mark in the state after a recently concluded elephant estimation process.
An elephant was found dead in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar forest division on Sunday making it the seventh jumbo to die in the state in less than three months.
JS Suhag, chief wildlife warden of Uttarakhand forest department said that prima facie the death appears to be due to natural causes.
“One male elephant, around 30-years-old was found dead on Sunday morning in an agricultural field at Shah Mansur beat of Khanpur range of Haridwar forest division. As of now, it appears that the elephant died due to a natural cause or could have been electrocuted as a high-tension wire is passing through that area. A post-mortem examination is being conducted, after which the actual cause of death will be known,” said Suhag.
In the third week of August (August 20 and August 19), two elephants were reported dead from Lansdowne forest division of Uttarakhand within 24 hours. Sant Ram, divisional forest officer for Lansdowne forest division said that both the elephants were adolescents and the deaths were reported from Kotdwar and Laldhang regions. Of these two elephants, officials had informed that one could have died due to electrocution as a high tension line goes through the place where the elephant carcass was found.
On July 27, the carcass of a three-year-old elephant was found in a gorge near Nakraunda area in Dehradun forest division after it was hit by a train. On July 19, a carcass of a sub-adult elephant was found in Jaspur range in Udham Singh Nagar district. On July 14, a carcass of 25-year-old wild tusker was spotted in the forests near a factory under the Mohan forest range of Almora forest division which is adjacent to the Corbett Tiger Reserve. On June 14, a carcass of a seven-year-old female elephant was found in Corbett Tiger Reserve’s Dhela range.
Uttarakhand government had recently reported that elephant numbers crossed the 2,000 mark in the state after a recently concluded elephant estimation process. The state reported a 29.9% increase since 2015, and reported a total of 2,026 elephants.
