Biswanath, Sep 5: A female elephant, who was pregnant, was electrocuted after coming in contact with live wires in Assam. The pregnant elephant lost mature foetus it was carrying in the incident which took place at a riverine island near Borgang river of Biswanath district. A post-mortem report was awaited.

Following the incident, the forest department lodged a complaint against a villager of Kathonibari area who allegedly laid the 220-Volt livewires leading to the death of the pregnant elephant. The department also said it was a ‘deliberate’ case of electrocution.

“It’s a deliberate case of electrocution where the solar fence was powered from the AC mainline instead of going through a battery powered energizer,” said P Sivakumar, conservator of forests, northern Assam circle, Tezpur, told News18. Wildlife conservationist Kaushik Barua called the death of the pregnant elephant a big loss.

“It seems from the last few incidents that a large number of young adult elephants are being killed. These were elephants which would have bred – an entire generation of elephants are being lost due to such ghastly acts by humans," Barua was quoted as saying.

He added that a mechanism should be in place use of power fences so that animal lives are saved. “Proper equipment and permissible source of power need to be ensured,” he said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 05, 2018 11:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).