A wild elephant has died after being electrocuted by a wire powered from a generator and laid around a crop field in the Garo hills of Sherpur. The elephant died at around 10pm on Thursday (31 October) in the Batkuchi Tilapara area. Police detained the owner of the land, Shahidul Islam, 38.

Locals said herds of wild elephants have recently been coming down into villages in the border area every night in search of food. Farmers have been trying various ways to drive the elephants off and save their crops. With the government's solar fencing project having collapsed, they have been rigging electric lines around their fields from their own generators to protect themselves from the elephants.

At around 9pm on Thursday a herd of about fifty wild elephants came down to the rubber garden area of the Batkuchi hills in search of food. While rampaging through the paddy fields, one elephant touched an electric line nearby and died on the spot. The other elephants with it became even more agitated and went on a rampage there.

Madhutila range officer Rafiqul Islam said a wild elephant had died, electrocuted by a generator set up by locals. More details would be known after the post-mortem, he said, but the owner of the land had been detained.

Sherpur assistant conservator of forests Sadekul Islam Khan said one person had been detained over the incident, and a case had been filed under the wildlife conservation law against others involved.

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