Overview
- Local tea-garden workers and villagers alerted Belakoba Range forest staff after finding the full-grown elephant carcass next to a tea plantation, and officials cordoned off the scene for inspection.
- Field teams found blade-wire fencing entangled around the animal and burn marks on the trunk, which led foresters to suspect the elephant contacted an illegally installed energized fence.
- A formal post-mortem has been ordered to confirm the cause of death and forensic findings will determine whether the case is treated as electrocution.
- Divisional forest officials say they will file a police complaint against the landowner if the post-mortem confirms electrocution, and investigators have noted local claims that the wires were removed after the death.
- Illegal or electrified fences are a recurring hazard in the region that heightens human–wildlife conflict by blocking elephant movement and can trigger criminal or administrative action if shown to cause deaths.