Bengaluru, 29 May

A 25-year-old elephant was killed after it came in contact with an electric pole on Tuesday night. The incident happened inside a coffee estate owned by ITC (Indian Tobacco Company)  in Suntikoppa, Kodagu district. According to the Deputy Conservator of Forests in Madikeri, Bhaskar, the tusker had accidentally knocked over an electric pole, leading to its death.

The Karnataka Forest Department has requested Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation Limited (CESCOM) to replace the electric poles with more durable concrete ones following the death. The incident came to light on Wednesday morning when the villagers found the elephant. The postmortem report revealed that the elephant suffered from lung bleeding and tusk injuries due to electrocution.

Between January 2021 and May 2024, Karnataka has lost 31 elephants to electrocution and in the span of five months in 2024 the State has lost eight elephants.

Joseph Hoover, a former Forest Department Board Member and President of the United Conservation Movement, told Salar News, "This is the second elephant death due to electrocution in a week. There is no proper oversight by the committee set up to inspect the forest and conduct regular checks on electric poles, and we still lack to coordinate with the civic officials of respective department to ensure this incident to happen again and truly i can see the department have failed" he stated.

On 25 May, an 18-year-old elephant was electrocuted in a coffee plantation near Tanduru village in Kodagu . Forest officials were alerted by labourers who discovered the carcass on next morning. An FIR was registered with the plantation owner, under section 2(16) of the Wildlife Protection Act (1972) for illegally tapping electricity from an overhead line, which is suspected to be the cause of death. -Salar News