Hassan: The popular perception is that elephants in the state are under threat from only poachers. But the reality is the poachers are not doing as much to harm the jumbos as the low hanging overhead power cables that electrocute them on contact on the fringes of forests or elsewhere .
Going by the Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) Limited's own admission as many as 100 jumbos have been electrocuted from June 2008 to 2017 in Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Madikeri and Hassan districts that it serves. In comparison, only 23 cases of elephant poaching have been registered in the state from 2012 to March 2017.
Mysuru district tops with 42 cases of jumbos being electrocuted, and is followed by Chamarajanagar, 29, Madikeri, 23 and Hassan, six , reveals CESC.
Elephants straying into agricultural fields are vulnerable to electrocution as they can come in contact with live sagging and snapped power cables, say conservationists and forest officials, accusing CESC personnel of ignoring sagging lines in jumbo corridors. Besides snapped cables, the elephants are under threat from electrification of fences around fields.
But CESC engineers argue that the jumbos often smash or uproot electric poles in plantations, snapping the cables which electrocute them. They also blame weak trees or their branches collapsing on cables for power lines snapping.
When contacted, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (wildlife), Bengaluru, Anur Reddy said underground cabling was the best option to tackle electrocution of elephants and a meeting would be held with CESC officials to discuss this. But far from applauding his solution, conservationists fear the underground cabling could be impractical as it would require several crores to execute.
