Elephant deaths due to electrocution are not a new thing for India. According to an RTI reply from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to activist K Govindan Namboothiry, about 474 elephants have died across the country due to electrocution in the past six years and there seems to be no end to the loss. The number for 2018 alone is 81. The latest incident comes from Dholagoan in Assam. This time, it was a lactating mother that died when a high voltage wire fell on the individual as the herd was making its way across a crop field.

Photo Credits: Dr. Samshul Ali

The elephant calf who survived

Dr. Samshul Ali, who was called in from the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation, for the post mortem informs, “During necropsy we were disheartened about the lactating mother. But the baby was missing. Locals informed us that the baby had left with the herd. From past experience, we advised the forest officials to keep looking for the baby. Four days later the abandoned baby was seen at Miripathar area as it probably could not travel with the herd alone after the death of the mother.”

The elephant calf, about 3 months old, had disappeared after the incident. On investigation, witnesses confirmed that the herd had tried to take the calf along after the death of his mother. However, babies such young, are completely dependent on their mother, for both nutrition and protection (with support from other matriarchs in the group). For a highly intelligent and social animal, losing the mother must have been a devastating experience for the young male. From the post mortem report, it was found that the mother was between 15 and 18 years of age. Consequently, there’s a high probability that this was a ‘first time mother’ since Asian elephants mature at about 14 years of age. Primary witnesses say that the calf couldn’t keep up with the rest of the herd and was eventually abandoned by the next day. On the fourth day, the 28^th of October, the calf had made its way back to Miripather where the incident took place.

Photo Credits: Dr. Samshul Ali

Dr. Samshul indicates that that calf, upon rescue, was “highly dehydrated and emaciated”. The baby was moved to CWRC, where it joined 6 other calves that have been rescued from different parts of Assam and are undergoing rehabilitation. The calf is being hand raised and currently reported to be stable and on a special diet. He has been named Dhola, after the place that changed its life.

Rehabilitation at CWRC

Supported by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) run by WTI with Assam Forest Department currently holds animals including leopards, elephants, wild buffaloes, Indian one horned rhinoceros and rhesus macaques. The centre also periodically rescues and rehabilitates birds and reptiles. Dhola will join another calf Xadiya who is of a similar age.

The past three weeks have claimed 3 elephant lives due to electrocution in Assam. Most of these electrocutions occur due to illegal power fencing around villages and farms. Cases of animals, especially elephants, coming in contact with high voltage overhead power lines too have also been a common reason for elephant mrtalities. The only possible and much needed solution to the problem is better landscape management and thereby securing our elephant corridors. Community participation in the same and the willingness of both governments and the corporate is crucial to making this happen. WTI has been the first to identify 101 elephant corridors across the Indian subcontinent and we are working towards securing each one of them.

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