Latehar (Jharkhand), Sep 7 (IANS) A wild elephant was electrocuted to death in Jharkhand’s Latehar district after coming into contact with a live electric fence installed by a villager to protect his house and crops from elephant intrusions, officials said on Monday.
The incident occurred on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday in Kusi Tola of Komar village under Jhabar Panchayat in the Balumath police station area.
According to local reports, a herd of around 15 elephants had entered the area and was moving towards maize fields when one of the animals came into contact with an electrified wire and died on the spot.
Residents said the herd had been roaming in the region for the past several days, damaging crops and houses.
To safeguard his property, a villager identified as Bifa Oraon had fenced the perimeter of his house with exposed electric wires carrying current. When the elephants approached the fields late at night, one of them inadvertently touched the live wire in the darkness and was fatally electrocuted.
The elephant’s death triggered panic in the surrounding area as the distressed herd trumpeted loudly. Forest officials suspect that some other elephants in the herd may also have suffered electric shocks and sustained injuries.
Following information about the incident, teams from the Forest Department and Balumath Police reached the spot. The carcass has been taken into custody, and postmortem procedures are underway.
Forest Ranger Nand Kumar Mehta said an investigation has been launched to determine how electricity was supplied to the fence and who was responsible. Legal action will be taken based on the findings of the probe, he said.
Officials have urged villagers not to resort to dangerous measures such as electrifying fences to protect crops and homes from wild elephants.
The death is not the first such incident linked to human-elephant conflict in the Balumath region. In October 2025, the carcass of a young elephant was found in a paddy field in the area. Earlier, in July 2022, another elephant was found dead in the Ranchi forest, with its tusks missing.
–IANS
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