Deogarh: A pregnant elephant was electrocuted after coming in contact with a live 11-kv wire dangling at a paddy farm at Mayurdima village in Laimura under Tileibani block of Deogarh district Thursday.
The pachyderm was 12 months pregnant, according to forest officials. “The elephant was of 35 years old and a dead male calf was recovered from its womb during post-mortem,” veterinary surgeon Dr Satyabrata Mishra said.
The matter came to the fore when the villagers had been to their farmland in the forenoon. On being informed by the villagers, forest officials recovered the carcass and conducted a post-mortem.
The villagers expressed their anger over the elephant’s death. They offered flowers to the carcass and worshipped it.
The locals alleged that a herd of elephants has been damaging crops in the areas for a fortnight but the forest officials are not making any efforts to drive away the pachyderms. They also held the electricity department officials responsible for the elephant’s electrocution.
PNN