Fallen wild elephant dies at construction site

GHORAMARI, NOVEMBER 24: The female wild elephant that had fallen into a pit along with her own calf and another baby in a construction site in Assam’s Sonitpur district, died today, forest officials said. The female elephant died 19 hours after falling into the pit at the site of Patanjali Mega Herbal and Food Park at Ghoramari, leaving the animal immobilised there. Assam Forest Minister Promila Rani Brahma visited the site in the morning after the death of the elephant. Brahma instructed Patanjali to leave 80 acres of land from the construction site so that wild elephants could move through that passage. She also ordered the Forest Department to file an FIR against the contractor of the Park site for not taking measures like boundary walls to prevent wild elephants from falling into construction pits. Stating the forest department does not have sufficient staff to regularly monitor one particular area, she said that it was impossible for one forest guard to protect wild elephants at the site 24 hours as there are many trenches in the construction site. The minister said that the Forest Department have decided to arrange a wild life medical team for this area. The incident occurred yesterday morning when the calf ran out of the herd towards the construction site followed by his mother and another calf. While one calf was able to come out of the pit, the other was rescued by people of the locality. Uday Goswami, coordinator of Patanjali Mega Herbal and Food Park said, “It is a very unfortunate incident. From today we have arranged a generator-cum-inverter system electric boundary until we provide a permanent solar powered system to be completed very soon.”