CHENNAI: The southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has slammed the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and held it accountable for rising elephant deaths due to electrocution in the state.
The bench comprising judicial member Justice K Ramakrishnan and expert member Saibal Dasgupta asked "why compensation should not be imposed on the electricity board for not complying with the directions issued by the Union Environment Ministry as well as the Principal Bench of NGT in similar issues."
A suo motu case was registered by the tribunal following the death of a male wild elephant, four wild boars, one common mongoose, three cobras and one crow, all found charred and in a decomposed state in Cherangode section of Cherambadi range of Gudalur forest division on February 25 this year.
A joint committee, consisting of PCCF (Head of Department), TANGEDCO Chairman and District Forest Officer of Gudalur division, was constituted to inspect the area and submit a report.
The committee submitted the report to the tribunal earlier this week, according to which the elephant has pushed the electric pole and the jumper connecting the two ends of the phase had stepped out of the pin insulator and had touched the top channel of the pole. "The elephant might have got electrocuted through the structure pole. There was no snapping of high tension lines," the report said, a copy of which is available with The New Indian Express.
At the same time, the committee found low sagging of lines in 47 locations in Gudalur and Pandalur. The area where the electrocution took place shares borders with Mudumalai tiger reserve, Muthanga wildlife sanctuary of Kerala, Nilambur forest, Nilgiris forest division and Gudalur forest division serving as a pathway for migrating herbivores and carnivores.
TANGEDCO's Nilgiris superintending engineer also said re-routing of entire 11 kv HT lines through the road side will be practically impossible and laying of underground cables will also be very expensive and not 100 per cent accident proof.
For this, the tribunal said poor maintenance of power lines is the root cause for such incidents. In Odisha's Dhenkanal, seven elephants died in 2018 after coming in contact with a sagging electric wire. The NGT principal bench asked the Odisha electricity company to pay Rs 4 crore as compensation. "How different is this case? We want to impose compensation on Tamil Nadu electricity board as well," the bench said.
An analysis of data pertaining to elephant deaths in India due to electrocution between 2009 and November 2017 points out that every year, about 50 elephants have died on average due to electrocution. A total of 461 elephant deaths due to electrocution occurred in these nine years. In Tamil Nadu, the number of deaths in the same period was 50. Karnataka, which has the highest population of elephants, has recorded the highest casualties in elephant deaths by electrocution, numbering 106.
NBWL guidelines not complied with
The Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has directed all electricity supply units, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), Central Electrical Authority (CEA) and State Electricity Boards (SEBs) to consider laying underground lines in protected areas to prevent loss of wildlife due to electrocution.
The decision was taken at the 54th meeting of the Standing Committee of the NBWL, which was chaired by Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on August 29, 2019, following recommendations from a task force constituted by the ministry for suggesting eco-friendly measures to mitigate impacts of power transmission lines and other power transmission infrastructures on elephants and other wildlife. The meeting was attended by the Tamil Nadu Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) and Chief Wildlife Warden.
However, there has been poor compliance on the ground.