Krishnagiri: An illegal wire fence kept for averting entry of wild boars, has unfortunately claimed the lives of two tribal men who accidentally stepped on the electrified snare at the spot in Krishnagiri district.
The two deceased were identified as 30-year-old M. Sivanappa and his 35-year-old relative M. Kempannan, both belonging to tribal community of N. Pudur village, near Natrampalayam, here in HosurDenkannikottai-Hogenakkal road.
In the early hours of Friday, both ventured out of their houses allegedly in search of their livestock sent into the forest for grazing and which did not return home the previous day.
They while at Panchalthunai, a forest fringe village near N.Pudur, when they stepped on to the electrified wire fence kept in the boundary of the farm owned by Sithamalappa.
The duo was electrocuted by the snare placed by the farmer to kill wild boars that might enter his farm to raid his groundnut crops.
Investigations revealed that the farmer Sithamalappa illegally tapped electricity from state power utility, Tangedco's direct line that passes through his farm. He used "hook-line" method to get electricity for his fence that ironically also killed these two tribals.
A metal object that is directly hooked to the overhead power supply system is termed as the 'hook-line method' of extracting power. This is being used by people in the remote villages that lack power supply for both domestic and agriculture use. Others do that to get power supply without paying bills to Tangedco.
The Anchetti police after coming to know about the tragedy went to Panchalthunai. They recovered the dead bodies and sent them for post-mortem conducted in Denkannikottai government hospital mortuary.
A case has been registered against Sithamalappa who was arrested after his surrender to the police for this incident.
