Assam Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday took stock of the devastating deaths of as many as 20 elephants at Bamuni Hills in Nagaon.
The Chief Minister has also directed the Forest Minister Parimal Suklabaidya to proceed towards the site of the incident.
Taking to Twitter, Dr, Sarma tweeted: CM Himanta @himantabiswa today took stock of mysterious deaths of elephants at Bamuni Hills in Nagaon and asked Forest Minister @ParimalSuklaba1 to proceed to the site of the incident.
20 elephants were killed due to electrocution by lightning strikes atop Bamuni Hills in Nagaon on Wednesday night. The elephants were found dead lying on the foothills of the Kundoli proposed reserve forest in the Kathiatoli range.
Assam forest minister Parimal Suklabaidya said that he was deeply pained by the death of the elephants and would be visiting Nagaon on Friday.
"Deeply pained by the death of 18 elephants last night due to massive thunderstorm under Kothiatoli Range in Nagaon. I shall be visiting the site tomorrow morning along with PCCF(wildlife) & senior officials to take stock of the situation as directed by HCM Dr.@himantabiswa," Mr.Suklabaidya tweeted.
In this connection, former Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the incident was "unfortunate"and it is an immense loss to the wildlife and biodiversity of the state.
Mr. Sonowal tweeted, "The death of 20 wild elephants due to lightning at Tapatjuri Hill at Barhampur, Nagaon is unfortunate. It is an immense loss to Assam's wildlife and biodiversity".
According to forest officials on Thursday afternoon villagers of Bamuni Hills informed the forest department based on which a team rushed to the incident site.
The carcasses of the elephants have been recovered by the Nagaon forest department and a postmortem examination will be conducted on Friday.
