Keonjhar: A day after the body of a tusker was recovered from an orchard near an Ashram School at Neudani under Soso police limits in Keonjhar district, Forest department sleuths Thursday arrested the orchard owner on charge of killing the animal by electrocution.
The accused was identified as Sangram Keshari Behera, 45, son of Satyendra Kumar Behera of Kanpur village. A case was registered in this connection and the accused produced in the court. Anandapur DFO Abhaya Dalei said the investigators have found credible evidences to substantiate the involvement of the accused in the electrocution of the elephant.
“The accused had put up a fence around the orchard with GI wires and had charged it with electric line. The animal, after coming in contact with charged wire, was electrocuted,” he said.
Moreover, GI wires have also been seized from the accused person’s orchard, he said. “The actual reason behind the death will be clear after we receive the postmortem and sample testing reports,” he added. Locals, after spotting the tusker carcass had informed the Forest officials alleging it to have died of electrocution. Notably, the distance between the place where the tusker’s body was found, and the Hadagarh elephant sanctuary, is only around five km.
PNN