Meera Bhardwaj:
Another elephant electrocuted, this time at Dandeli in Karnataka on June 12, this year. This takes the elephant electrocution toll to 16 within a span of 24 months in a state that was once known for its elephant care, conservation and protection.
A whopping 40 elephants were either killed or found dead in Karnataka for varying reasons between June 2023 and June 2025. Out of this, a whopping 16 elephants were electrocuted while the rest 24 died due to varying reasons ranging from gunshot wounds to health issues to accidents to dehydration.
ELEPHANT KILLINGS
Decrying the incidents of elephant electrocutions in the state, activists say it is high time the government rather concentrated on “protection of elephant corridors and its elephant habitat” than on setting up panels and forming collaborations with research institutions, wasting precious public money.
The statistics of elephant electrocution in Karnataka is very disturbing and tragic as it involves one of the most gentle, lovable mammals found on Planet Earth and the most worshipped animal in the form of Lord Ganesh in India.
The other reasons for death of elephants between 2023-2025 has been due to:
- Gunshot wounds
(Sep 14, Bhadra Tiger Reserve,
March 2024, Belur, Hassan)
- Water scarcity, dehydration
- Health issues and
- Capture operations (Dec 2023, Mudigere).
Mostly tuskers and calves have been found dead in trenches, ditches, estates, plantations, agricultural fields and inside and outside the protected areas.
ELECTROCUTION OF 16 ELEPHANTS
Most cases of electrocution of elephants have occurred when the jumbos have come in contact with electrified fences as many farm and estate owners (on the fringes of protected areas) have illegally electrified their fences. While other cases have been when jumbos have come in contact with sagging electric wires due to lack of maintenance by the power supply companies. Let’s take a look at the statistics below:
YEAR PLACE
Jun,2023 Virajpete, Kodagu
Jun, 2023 DB Kuppe, Nagarhole
Dec 2023 Santhekodihalli, Kanakpura
Jul,2023 Omkar, Bandipur TR
Mar 2024 Kattige, Yellapur, UK
May 2024 Near Alur, CKM
Nov 2024 Kothnur range, Cauvery WLS
Nov 2024 Anekal, Bannerghatta NP
Nov 2024 Ayanuur, Shivamogga
Nov 2024 Mudigere, CKM
Nov 2024 Kundukere, Bandipur TR
Dec 2024 Tarikere, CKM
Mar 2025 Madikeri, Kodagu
Apr 2025 Omkar Range, Bandipur TR
May 2025 Sakleshpur, Hassan
Jun 2025 Dandeli, Kali TR
(UK – Uttar Kannada, CKM – Chikkamagaluru)
Is there no end to elephant electrocution in Karnataka, a state that boasts of the highest elephant population (6395) in the country?
Elephant task force has been set up many a time, petitions filed in the Karnataka High Court frequently with orders for stoppage to electrocution and innumerable Central guidelines and mitigation measures have been adopted but there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel to protect the national animal, a Schedule-1 species.
Despite these task forces, inquiry panels coming out with mitigation measures and Supreme Court and High Court orders, the problem continues unabated. Now with the collaboration between Karnataka Forest Department and Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru at a cost of Rs 4.74 crore, can this problem be solved within a span of five years?
WASTAGE OF PUBLIC MONEY
According to wildlife activists and conservationists, crores of rupees have been spent by the state government in the name of research, collaborations and setting up of elephant task forces in the last few decades but elephants still continue to die in Karnataka.
Activists add, “Instead of addressing the core issue for rising human-elephant conflicts which are diversion of forest habitat for linear structures, hydroelectric projects, fragmentation of forests for roads, highways, and disappearance of elephant corridors, the Karnataka government has gone in for another collaboration which in no way will either stop elephant electrocution or human-elephant conflicts in the state.”
WHY MEKEDATU HYDRO-POWER PROJECT?
Apart from this, Karnataka government is bent upon implementing projects like the Mekedatu Balancing Reservoir project which will submerge the core area of Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary (about 8000 acres) and a crucial elephant corridor (4600 acres of two reserve forests). Now what will happen to the hundreds and hundreds of elephants that inhabit this region and migrate from the Cauvery WLS to the contiguous BR Hills TR with submergence of 8000 acres in this protected area?
Where will these gentle giants go and will alternative forest be provided for these voiceless species? If humans continue to occupy and divert the forest lands, the day is not far off when elephants will migrate to Bengaluru and settle down in JP Nagar and Jayanagar.
The need of the hour is to take the right decision and go in for sustainable development and not displace elephants and other wildlife from their habitat again and again and create new problems to the already existing gargantuan, elephantine problem.