Five elephants die in one year in Province 1

By Jaya Krishna Yadav,Inaruwa, Dec. 26: Five wild elephants have died due to electrocution in three districts of Province-1 in a year. Ramesh Yadav, Conservation Officer of Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (KTWR), said that all the wild elephants died due to electrocution. According to Yadav, elephants are at risk in every forest area of Jhapa, Sunsari and Udayapur.

Locals say elephants coming from Assam, in India, to KTWR have killed some people in nearby settlements, so they have resorted to taking preventive measures.

According to Yadav, only on Friday, a wild elephant was found dead inside the Kaushika community forest area of ​​Barah Kshetra-2. In addition to this, two wild elephants died in Jhapa, two in Sunsari and one in Udayapur.

Hari Yadav, a resident of the KTWR area, said that due to human-wildlife conflict, seven wild elephants died in 16 months in three districts of Province 1: Jhapa, Sunsari and Udayapur.

Chineshwor Mehata of the Animal Veterinarians and Specialists Centre said that a dead elephant was found in Baraha Kshetra-2 in Sunsari, and a post-mortem was conducted with doctors from the Centre.

According to Ranger Lekhnath Bhandari of the Sub-Division Forest Office, Nadaha, the wild elephant, which looks about 30-40 years old, was found dead on Friday morning. An expert team of KTWR along with forest staff, police, and people's representatives did the last rites in presence of local people.