Wild elephant electrocuted near Hatigarh TE factory

The tragic death of another wild tusker at Hatigarh tea garden factory in Udalguri district has again proved the irresponsible attitude of the tea garden management in the matter of man elephant conflict in the district.So far more than ten wild elephants had been electrocuted in various tea gardens namely -Hatigarh,Nonai,Barangajuli etc in last two years. Nature lovers allege that tea garden management had never been serious in the matter,instead they just tried to pass on the responsibility to forest officials.The electrocution of the wild tusker aged 15 years occured in the night of June 4 at Bholakhuti line attached to the factory house of Hatigarh tea garden.The locals said that they had regularly seen movements of wild elephants in the tea garden premises for a long time.According to them the killed wild tusker approached a jack fruit tree near the factory house at 8.15 pm on June 4 and was instantly killed follwing its contact with the loosely hanging electric wire.They also alleged the there were none to watch for the mvement of wild elephants.

A group of media persons from Kalaigaon and Tangla visited the place of electrocution on June 5 (World Environment Day).They were surprised to see loose electric wires at different places inside the garden.More over erection of protective electric wiring on the boundary of the garden were also noticed. Haladhar Kalita,Range Officer,Nonai and Bornadi Range told media persons on the spot that an FIR had been lodged at Harisinga Police Station against the tea garden management.The Range Officer also said that the proposed opening of a large new tea garden in Bhutan by a multi national company would speed up the process of deforestation and would cause food crisis of the wild elephants with the reduction of grazing area.The post mortem was done by Dr.Ranjan Sarma,VAS, Bhergaon State Vety Dispensary on June 5.Members of Kalaigaon Press Club and Tangla Press Club have condemned the electrocution of the wild elephant.They have already requested Santius Kunjur,EM,BTC;Rihon Daimari,(former minister) MLA, Udalguri; Kamali Basumatari, MLA, Paneri; Thaneswar Malakar, Deputy Commissioner,Udalguri and Bankim Sarma, DFO, Dhansiri Forest Division to take action in the matter so as to minimise the death rate and to punish the guilty.It has been informed by the DFO that inquiry in to the matter had already been issued.