14 DAY TRIAL // As if having to always keep an eye open for poachers were not enough, it turns out that elephants have other things to worry about as well, and among these things are dangling wires charged with electricity.
Thus, news from India says that an adult wild elephant living in this part of the world has recently been killed by an 11,000-volt wire that the animal chanced to stumble upon while minding its own business.
Information shared with the public says that the incident occurred in the state of Assam, in India's northwestern region. More precisely, the wire that shocked the elephant was hanging from a bent pole in the Doomdooma Forest Range.
Daily Mail informs that, shortly after the elephant came into contact with the wire and was electrocuted, local authorities arrived in the area.
The same source tells us that they removed the animal's carcass and told people living in this part of India that they were planning to carry out a post-mortem examination.
Talking to the press, communities in the Doomdooma Forest Range explained that the wire responsible for this elephant's death had been dangling from the bent pole for quite a while. However, nobody saw fit to do anything about it.
Thus, they accused the local electricity provider of not caring that such wires were a threat to both to people and wildlife. They further argued that, seeing how they too failed to intervene and fix the problem, authorities in the area were also to blame.
By the looks of it, the Doomdooma Forest Range is no stranger to such incidents. On the contrary, locals claim that, over the past few months, three other elephants have died after accidentally coming into contact with a faulty wire. Besides, it is said that a young boy has recently lost his life in the same manner.
As reported on several occasions, elephants are currently in danger of going extinct. This is because some people think that their tusks have medicinal properties and, consequently, poachers have made it their lives' goal to track down such animals and butcher them in order to sell the ivory they get from them on the black market.
Environmental groups, together with high officials in the countries inhabited by this species, are doing their best to save elephants from going extinct by trying to keep them safe from poachers. However, some might want to argue that anti-poaching campaigns are pretty much futile if elephants can also die because of something as simple as a dangling wire that can easily be fixed.