A wild elephant has died after getting caught in an illegal electric wire put up around a baukul (jujube) orchard in Eidgaon, Cox's Bazar, to keep out wild animals and thieves, it has been alleged.

The elephant was found dead at dawn on Friday 24 November in the Bhomriaghona stream area of Shiapara, Ward 9, Sadar union, Eidgaon upazila. After a post-mortem in the afternoon, the carcass was buried at the spot.

The elephant was about 40 to 42 years old. Anwar Hossain Sarkar, divisional forest officer (DFO) of the Cox's Bazar North forest division, said it died of a "heart attack". He added that the necessary organs were being sent to Dhaka for a viscera report to establish the actual cause of death.

Many local people, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the forest land in the Bhomriaghona stream area had been allotted under social forestry to Firoz Ahmed, brother of former chairman Farid. He gave the plot on a sharecropping basis to Abdul Jalil, a Rohingya. Sharecropper Jalil has grown baukul there for several years, and an orchard was planted again this year. As the jujubes became ready to eat, an illegal electricity connection was run through GI wire around the orchard to protect the fruit from animals, birds, wildlife and thieves.

The elephant was electrocuted and fell as it made its way back to the forest along the stream beside the wire. Its cries were heard for about two hours before the call to Fajr prayer, but nobody came out for fear.

They said herds of elephants come at night in the paddy-ripening season and eat the paddy in the fields. The dead elephant had eaten paddy from a field next to the chairman's farm and got caught in the wire on its way back to the forest.

Abdul Hakim, UP member for Ward 9, said it was not yet known whether the elephant died of electrocution or of something else.

Zulkar Nain, a veterinarian at Dulahazara Safari Park, said the initial assumption was that the elephant died of a heart attack. A heart attack could also be caused by an electric short or by other factors.

Abdul Jalil, who ran the baukul orchard, could not be reached for comment as he has absconded.

DFO Anwar Hossain Sarkar of the Cox's Bazar North forest division said the matter would be confirmed once the viscera and post-mortem reports arrive. He added that a quantity of electric wire had been seized from Abdul Jalil's home, and a case would be filed against him under the relevant sections over the felling of social forestry trees and the electric wire.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.