Two elephants electrocuted in Jharkhand

Jamshedpur, June 2 : The carcass of two elephants, a mother elephant and its baby, which died due to electrocution, was found this morning in Kewar village of Jharkhand.

According to reports as the baby elephant crossed the Dlama forest and entered the adjoining Kewar village, it got an electric shock from an exposed electric wire and died on the spot.

The mother elephant in its effort to save its offspring got electrocuted in the same way and died soon after.

The forest department blamed the villagers for deliberately leaving the naked electric wires there to prevent elephants from entering the village to protect their farms and houses.

Elephants are a protected and endangered species in India. India has nearly half of the world's 60,000 Asian elephants. But conservationists say the pachyderm population has fallen rapidly in recent years because of loss of habitat due to human encroachment into forest areas, leading to human-elephant conflicts.

ANI