18 elephants killed by lightning in India

 

At least 18 wild elephants have been killed at Bamuni Hills in Assam’s Nagaon district after lightning struck them Thursday night.

NDTV reports that sources from the state forest department said that preliminary investigation showed that the animals appear to have been killed in a lightning strike.

The sources said a search operation has been launched in the area and the actual reason and number of elephants killed will be known in due course.

The incident took place in Kandoli Proposed Reserved Forest (PRF) in Kathiatoli range of Nagaon forest Division.

“Local villagers informed us about the death of the elephants. We rushed to the spot and found them lying on the ground. We have sent the carcasses for postmortem,” said a forest official.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Amit Sahay said, “the area is very remote and our team could reach there on Thursday afternoon. It was found that carcasses were lying in two groups. Fourteen were lying atop the hill and four were found at the bottom of the hill.”