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Uttarakhand tells power companies to repair cables after death of 2 elephants
The Uttarakhand forest department said it will give one month’s time to the companies for the repair sagging cables.
The Uttarakhand forest department will write to all power companies asking them to tighten suspension of high tension cables after two elephants died of suspected electrocution in the state in the past 10 days failing which action will be taken against them, forest officials said.
The state forest department will give one month’s time to the companies for the repair work.
JS Suhag, chief wildlife warden of Uttarakhand forest department said that as per norms the height of the wires should be checked every year, which is not being done due to which sagging cables touch the bodies of the elephants.
“Organisations like Power Transmission Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (PTCUL) are supposed to check the height of high-tension wires passing through forest areas every year. The suspension of the wires changes over time and it lowers due to which it touches the elephants and other animals passing through those areas, leading to electrocution of the animals,” said Suhag.
He added that the state forest department will give one month’s time to the industries to repair the wires after which action will be taken against them.
“In the past ten days, two elephants have died likely due to electrocution. The post mortem reports are still awaited. But many such cases have been reported in the past three years,” added the chief wildlife warden.
An elephant was found dead in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar forest division on Sunday. This was the seventh elephant death to be reported from the state in the last nearly three months.
The chief wildlife warden on Sunday had said that it appeared that the elephant “died due to a natural cause or could have been electrocuted as a high-tension wire is passing through that area”.
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 had 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 its carcass was found.
