Kolkata, Oct 31 A full-grown male elephant was electrocuted at the Nagrakata area in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district, state forest department officials said on Saturday.
According to local sources, the incident took place on Friday when an elephant came in contact with live electric wires illegally put up around a cultivable land near the Khairakata area inside the Diana forest range.
West Bengal Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF), Vinod Kumar Yadav, said that one person, identified as S.K. Mafidul Haque (30), was arrested in connection with the case.
Haque was initially detained by the district forest officials after an initial investigation. Later, the officials arrested him for his alleged role in erecting the live electric wires around the farmland.
Sources said that forest officials also recovered some GI wires from the place of the incident. It was learnt that Haque illegally put up live electric wires to protect the agricultural yields of the land.
Earlier, another full-grown elephant was electrocuted at the east division of Alipurduar's Buxa Tiger Reserve in June this year. A local farmer was arrested by the forest department official that time also.
"We are carrying out intensive campaigns to sensitise people living in and around these forest areas," an officials said.
( With inputs from IANS )
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