The incident took place at Budhamba village under Telkoi range of Keonjhar Forest Division this morning. Both the victims were female and aged about 25 years, a forest official said.
“In the morning we found that the jumbos were electrocuted. We informed the forest officials thereafter they came and disconnected the power supply,” an eyewitness revealed.
“The people who were in charge of the power supply are responsible for the incident,” Keonjhar DFO said.
The two animals allegedly died as the high tension wire fell on them.
“The elephants fell into a ditch and tried to come out with the help of an electric pole near the pit. However, the pole was uprooted and fell on the jumbos as a result of which they were electrocuted. After the joint verification it was clear that the death of elephants was not due to the high tension wires,” an electrical engineer said.
Today`s double death of elephants follows incidents of similar three others in the same area in July last year, forest officials said.