Estate owner held for electrocution of jumbo

COIMBATORE: A 45-year-old estate owner, who went into hiding following the electrocution death of a wild tusker in Gudalur last year, was arrested by the Forest Department on Friday.

The tusker, aged four, suffered a shock after it came into contact with an electric fence put up in the private tea estate, at Ayyankolli village in Bitherkad Forest Range, owned by Shaji in August, last year.

A probe revealed that Shaji had powered his solar fence with direct electricity from his house. Also, he had encroached upon 3.5 acres of forest land and harvested tea and areca nuts in that area. Therefore, the Forest Department recovered the land under encroachment and destroyed the crops.

However, Shaji went into hiding and could not be traced despite a search over the last nine months. Acting on a tip, a special team of the Forest Department rushed to Kozhikode and arrested the accused with the help of Kerala police. The Forest Department brought him to Bitherkad Forest Range office and further inquiries are on.

In another wildlife related incident, the people from Arottuparai village in ‘O’ Valley Town Panchayat blocked roads on Friday demanding the Forest Department to speed up efforts to capture a wild elephant, which trampled to death a 43-year-old teashop owner. They alleged that two girl students, studying Class 10 were forced to skip the public examination on Thursday, as they were unable to step out of the house. Forest Department deployed two kumki’s Srinivasan and Vijay in the locality.