5 jumbo deaths in March: Tangedco may change cables in elephant paths

CHENNAI: After the electrocution of five elephants in March, the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation would hold a consultation with the forest officials to identify elephant migratory paths to change overhead cables into aerial bunched cables (ABC) and set up barbed wire fencing for electricity poles.

A male wild elephant was electrocuted in Poochiyur Village in Coimbatore on early hours of Saturday after the animal pushed an electric post. This is the fifth elephant to be killed due to electrocution in the state this month.

A senior Tangedco official said that local Tangedco officials were instructed to hold consultations with the forest officials to identify elephant migratory paths, which is frequently changing.

“Once such possible paths are identified, we would take up converting the conventional overhead cables into the aerial bunched cables which are insulated conductors bundled together offering safety from electrocution. The electric poles in those areas would be covered with barbed wire fencing,” the official said.

The official claimed that often people chase the wild elephants entering their villages leading to such electrocutions.

When asked, why the Tangedco failed to adhere to the guidelines issued by the National Board of Wildlife in 2019 to insulate overhead wires across all elephant habitats and elephant movement zones and set up reinforced electric poles fitted with spikes to prevent elephants from rubbing against them, the official said that to convert into underground cables they would be requiring the Forest Department clearance.

“In agriculture areas, laying underground cables is not advisable as they would be ploughing the land. We would opt for the ABC cables,” the official said.

On March 6, two adult female elephants and a makhana were electrocuted by an illegal electric fence on a farm in a village in the Dharmapuri district. On March 18, a tusker was electrocuted after coming into contact with a low-lying power line when the Forest Department staff chased it from a village in the Dharmapuri district.

The Madras High Court on March 23 summoned the Tangedco Chairman and Chief Wildlife Warden on April 19, to explain the four elephant deaths in Dharmapuri.