New Delhi: The earliest red flag was in 2005 and over the past year, many sounded the alarm - tragedy was imminent. On Friday, one elephant came into contact with a live wire, then six more that were following in a single line also got electrocuted and died.
When on the move in search of water or food, elephants typically walk in a single file - a behaviour, which through 80 million years of evolution, has offered them an advantage when most vulnerable. On Friday, this wasn't the case. The death of seven elephants in a single incident is the highest ever in Odisha and since then the government has suspended key officials and ordered a probe by the crime branch into the incident.
A source in the forest department explained, "When an elephant herd is on the move, in search of food or water, they walk in a single file. This allows them to walk as a unit and protect their young. This herd was doing the same, but after one elephant came into contact with the wire the others also got electrocuted and died."
But these deaths were foretold. As early as 2005, the Wildlife Trust of India and the Ministry of Environment and Forest's Project Elephant in the document 'Right of Passage: Elephant Corridors of India' had identified the railway line as a key threat. The incident took place close to the Maulabhanja-Anantapur elephant corridor. A combination of forests being encroached, mining in the area, construction of several irrigation canals have led to severe degradation of the corridor.
With elephants still seasonally and routinely taking the routes, the past year saw the forest department repeatedly sound the alarm regarding a more immediate threat: sagging live wires. In 2017, Dhenkanal DFO had written to the state-run Central Electricity Supply Utility of Odisha (CESU) regarding the "sagging 11 KV lines" in the region. The department had urged that "a stretch of 136.57 km of low tension lines" passing through elephant habitats urgently be cabled. According to the forest and environment minister Bijayshree Routray, locals in the area had also informed the local CESU office regarding the same.
In March, additional chief secretary (forest) Suresh Mahapatra held a meeting during which, as per minutes, it was decided that transmission lines passing through the areas where elephants move should be cabled or insulated. Six months later, during a coordination meeting with the Energy department, CESU informed that “the cabling of the transmission line was yet to be taken up in the Dhenkanal division," officials said.
The Forest Department issued a statement, putting the blame squarely on their counterparts in the energy department and said, “Due to non-rectification of sagging lines and non-cabling of the transmission line, the accident occurred.”
Meanwhile, energy department secretary Hemant Kumar Sarma said, “A three-member team of the Energy department has been formed to investigate the incident and appropriate action will be taken after the probe.” For now, the CESU has "suspended an SDO, a superintending engineer and terminated from service a union engineer" while the forest department also suspended a range officer, a ranger, a forest guard of the Dhenakal forest division," officials said.
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