Guwahati, Jan. 19: Four elephants were electrocuted when they came in contact with an electric pole at Belugari on the Assam-Meghalaya border in the early hours yesterday. Delayed reports reaching here said the incident happened in Belugari in West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya. The spot is just a km away from Lakhipur forest range of Assam.
As the area is sparsely populated, the information was received here only this evening.
?A herd of Asiatic elephants was moving in the area. Some of them dashed against an electric pole through which a transmission line was passing,? Goalpara divisional forest officer Vipin Kumar Bansal said over telephone.
Bansal said officials from the nearby Lakhipur forest range have already gone to the site. A team from the Meghalaya forest department has also visited the area, he added. Bansal, who joined his post only three days back, is visiting the area tomorrow.
Sources said though the area is not within Assam, a detailed report would be prepared so that talks can be held with Meghalaya to prevent such mishaps in the future. However, Assam chief wildlife warden M.C. Malakar does not have any information about the incident.
The Garo Hills have often been in the news for human-elephant conflict. The Meghalaya government decided last year to create elephant reserves in the Khasi Hills and a new management habitat protection plan was chalked out for the Garo Hills.
The Garo Hills form one of the main elephant sanctuaries of the state and have a total population of nearly 1,200 elephants out of a total of over 1,800 in the state.