Two elephants electrocuted in Bannerghatta National Park
Two male makhana elephants died of electrocution inside the Bannerghatta National Park (BNP) on the outskirts of Bengaluru, police said on Sunday. Speaking to IANS, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Ajay Mishra said that these two elephants aged about eight to ten years probably came to quench their thirst to this water body on Saturday situated in Chikkondanahalli lake near the Ramadevarabetta forest, which falls under the BNP range.
"Nearby lake's bund 11kv high tension cables laid by Bengaluru Electric Supply Company runs through. It is found that two poles are tilted towards the water body. Maybe when these jumbos came here to drink water came in contact with a live wire and died on the spot," he explained.
He further added that he had been to the spot on Saturday and after electrocution, the elephants had fallen into the lake and postmortem was yet to be conducted after they were brought out of the lake.
While, the BNP's Deputy Conservator of Forest Prashant Sankimath told IANS that the forest preliminary investigations revealed that these male makhana jumbos had come in contact with a live wire that was submerged in the lake. "Only post-mortem can confirm this angle, we are waiting for the post-mortem report," he said.
According to the Bannerghatta National Park (BNP) official website, it was declared in 1974 initially with an area of 106.83 Km. It had then comprised two reserved forests spread over in the districts of Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural. Subsequently, in 2011, Kodihalli range of Ramanagara territorial division was added to the national park.
The total area of BNP now is 260.51 Km comprising 13 reserved forests spread over the districts of Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural and Ramanagara. The boundary of BNP has a highly irregular shape and it measures about 59 km in length; the width of the park varies from 0.3 km to 13.8 km.
There are four ranges in the national park, namely, Anekal, Bannerghatta, Harohalli and Kodihalli wildlife ranges, the website noted.
The website added that forests of the national park are mostly of scrub type with mixed dry deciduous patches in the sheltered valleys. There are some very good patches of medri bamboo (Dendrocalamus strictus).
Animals found in the park include panther, elephant, sloth bear, spotted deer, grey langur, bonnet macaque, wild boar, jackal, varieties of reptiles and birds, etc. Occasional sightings of a tiger are also reported.
The forest department would register a case with the police and investigations are on.
