Poachers electrocuted 88 animals, SC told

In an alarming admission, the Centre has told the Supreme Court that at least 88 wild animals, mostly elephants, sambar, boar and endangered ones like rhino, were poached by drawing lines from high tension wires running over wildlife sanctuaries and national parks.

In an affidavit, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has made the disturbing disclosure in response to the Supreme Court’s notice issued on November 5, last seeking details about the number of wild animals killed by poachers through electrocution.

The apex court had sought the details noting that, of late, poachers have been resorting to drawing lines from the high tension wires running over wildlife sanctuaries and reserved forests to electrocute the wildlife.

Following the direction, the ministry collected data from all states and filed an affidavit in the court.

According to the figure, Odisha recorded the maximum 39 such deaths where animals included elephant, sambar and boar. Assam came second with 24 rhino deaths.

Meghalaya and West Bengal also registered 13 and 12 elephant deaths, respectively, due to electrocution in recent years.

Uttarakhand reported killing of 26 elephants but did not attribute the deaths to poaching. Different states also claimed that at times villagers killed animals like elephants in order to protect their crops.