Electrocution leading cause of jumbo deaths in India: MoEF

India lost 82 elephants in 2021-22 due to unnatural reasons, out of which 57 died due to electrocution.

Electrocution continues to be the biggest threat to the elephants in India as 348 of them died due to this in the last five years.

According to the answer issued by the Ministry of environment, forest and climate changes (MoEF) in Lok Sabha on December 19 to an unstarred question raised by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, with 26 unnatural deaths (12 due to electrocution) this year, continued to carry dubious title of being a death trap for elephants in the country. Eight elephants died due to a train accident in Assam, while six were poisoned to death in that state. No cases of poaching were reported in Assam this year.

Odisha lost the highest number of elephants due to electrocution - 13, followed by Karnataka with seven, Kerala with six, Tamil Nadu with five, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh with four each, and Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal with two each.

Of the four elephants poached in the country, three cases were reported in Odisha and one in Tamil Nadu. All six cases of poisoning of elephants were reported from Assam this year.

Karnataka, which is home to the largest number of elephants in the country, lost eight of them due to unnatural reasons, including seven due to electrocution. One elephant was killed in a train accident. In 2020-21 the state lost 9 elephants due to electrocution, eight in 2019-20 nine in 2018-19 and 10 in 2017-18.

In the last five years, there hasn’t been a single case of elephant poaching reported in Karnataka, as per the answer issued by the ministry. The last case of the poisoning of elephants was reported in 2017-18 in the state.

On the national level too there has been a decrease in the number of elephant deaths due to unnatural reasons. Last year, India lost 99 elephants, the same number as in 2020; in 2018-19 115 elephants were killed due to human reasons and 105 in 2017-18, said the document.