The Associated Press
November 22, 2007
GAUHATI, India: Four wild elephants were electrocuted after becoming entangled in low-strung power cables while foraging for food in the forests of India's northeast, officials said Thursday.
The deaths, following the electrocution of six elephants last month, prompted conservationist to call for shifting the cables out of the elephants' shrinking habitat.
The latest deaths were of three females and a calf, killed Tuesday in a remote forest in Meghalaya state, said V. K. Nautiyal, a senior state wildlife official.
Northeastern India is home to the world's largest concentration of wild Asiatic elephants, with some 7,000 of them in the states of Assam and Meghalaya.
But heavy deforestation in the region has shrunk their habitat, leading to an increase of human-elephant conflict and accidental elephant deaths.
"The power authorities must act fast to stop further death of elephants due to electrocution," said Dipu Marak, a conservationist in Meghalaya.
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