ASSAM, INDIA- At least 18 elephants are believed to have been killed by lightning in a forest in Assam’s Nagaon district of India on Thursday.
The incident happened in the hilly Kandali Proposed Reserve Forest in the Forest Department’s Kathiatoli Range, officials said.
Locals in northeastern Assam state found the dead animals, including five calves, on Thursday in the foothills of the Kundoli forest reserve in Nagaon district.
“We suspect that it is a lightning strike that killed them as a result of the storm yesterday,” said M.K Yadava, Chief Wildlife Warden, Assam, told the media outlets on Friday.
“There have been cases of lightning striking animals down. Lightning claimed five elephants in West Bengal some time ago, but this is huge,” he said.
A team of veterinary doctors as well as forest officials have been rushed to the spot for further investigation, he added. The team is expected to examine if there are other reasons behind the death of the elephants.
The carcasses were found by locals in the Kundoli Proposed Reserve Forest under the Kathiatoli range in Nagaon district.
India is home to more than 50% of Asiatic elephants. Assam is home to an estimated 6,000 or more wild Asiatic elephants who venture in and out of the forests in search of food.
Conservationists have urged the government to prevent encroachment of people and to establish free corridors for the elephants to move between forests safely. In recent years, wild elephants have entered villages, destroyed crops and even killed people.
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