Two forest officials were suspended and a villager was arrested after a female elephant and her calf died when they came into contact with an illegally electrified solar fence near Kamakshyanagar in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district, forest authorities said.
The elephants were electrocuted near a paddy field, about 15 km from Dhenkanal town, on Saturday morning. Both animals died at the spot after allegedly touching a live electric wire connected to the fence.
Dhenkanal divisional forest officer Lalit Patra said Subhendu Bhuiyan, forester of the Anlabereni section, and Manasmita Barala, forest guard of the Kadalipala beat, had been suspended for dereliction of duty after their negligence was established, according to the Times of India report.
Kumara Naik, 51, a resident of Godaribili village, was arrested for allegedly charging the solar fence illegally. Forest officials said the fencing was allegedly intended to kill wild animals that might be hunted for bush meat. Authorities are investigating the exact circumstances of the deaths and whether other people were involved in installing or maintaining the illegal power connection.
The case highlights the risks created when agricultural boundary fencing is connected to live electricity outside regulated safety systems. Solar fences can be used to deter animals from entering cultivated fields, but the forest department’s account indicates that the fence involved in this incident had been illegally charged and became lethal to wildlife.
The suspensions also place local monitoring and enforcement under scrutiny. The forest department has not publicly disclosed in the supplied report how long the fence had been in place, who installed it or whether previous complaints had been received. Those details are expected to form part of the inquiry into the incident.
The deaths came less than a week after a 20-year-old tusker was electrocuted near Similipal Tiger Reserve under the Baripada forest division. In that case, officials also found that an unregulated solar fence around a paddy field had been illegally connected to electricity, resulting in the elephant’s death.
The two incidents have involved similar infrastructure around cultivated land, but the forest department’s inquiries will determine whether there are wider links between them. In the Dhenkanal case, officials said the investigation would examine the installation and maintenance of the fence and establish whether more people were involved.
The next steps are the completion of the detailed inquiry into the deaths and the examination of the alleged illegal power connection. The forest department’s findings will determine further action in the Dhenkanal case.
