At least two Asian elephants died avoidable deaths this week, one in Assam in India and the other on the Indonesian island of Bali. In the first case, an elephant that was part of a herd that emerged from the Dehingmukh reserve forest and was foraging in a paddy field was electrocuted when it raised its trunk and accidentally touched a low-hanging 11 kV power line.
The incident occurred on Friday at Madhupur Paroliguri village, 27 km from Dibrugarh town. Locals said they had complained several times to the power utility about the dangerously low-hanging line, but no action was taken.
The other incident took place on Tuesday. Molly, a 45-year-old Sumatran elephant, scientific name Elephas maximus sumatranus, one of 15 housed at the Bali zoo, was swept away and killed in a flash flood. According to the zoo, the handlers routinely led the elephants on a walk to a nearby river. However, that day, heavy rains caused the river to rise and the current to strengthen around the time Molly went for her walk.
Witnesses said they heard the elephant cry out before she was swept away. Tina, another elephant who was also at the spot at the time, managed to reach safety. Molly’s carcass was found the following day downstream. Zoo officials claimed the death was “unavoidable”, but that appears to be an arguable point.
Asian elephants continue to be an endangered species. According to the most recent assessment of the Sumatran subspecies by the non-profit Indonesian Elephant Conservation Forum in 2022, only between 924 and 1,359 individuals remain in the wild. According to a recent report, India’s elephant count may have dropped by as much as 20% over five years since the last census in 2017.
