Korba, Jan 19 (PTI) A female elephant died after coming contact with a high-voltage live wire in a forested area of Chhattisgarh's Surajpur district in the early hours of Wednesday, an official said.

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The incident took place around 2 am in a forest near Darhora village, where a herd of four elephants was passing through, divisional forest officer (DFO) Surajpur forest division B S Bhagat said.

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Soon after being alerted by locals, forest personnel rushed to the spot and a post-mortem was conducted, he said.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that the female pachyderm, aged around 49 years, came in contact with an 11 kv power transmission line, which was dangling at a low height in the forest and got electrocuted," the official said.

The electricity department has been informed about the transmission line hanging at a low height there, he added.

Surajpur, a neighbouring district of Korba, is located over 300 km away from capital Raipur.

According to the forest department, as many as 43 elephants died in the state, mainly in the northern part, between January 2019 and November 2021, due to various reasons, including electrocution.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)