Two elephants were electrocuted when they came in contact with a high power grid line in a government-owned garden of Assam Tea Corporation Limited in Jorhat district.
The elephants, a male and a female, came out of the Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary and entered Sycotta Tea Estate at Mariani when the trunk of the male elephant touched the power grid line, Maraini Range Officer Dibakar Medhi said.
The jumbos regularly strayed into the adjacent tea estates and villages bordering the sanctuary in search of food and water.
The sanctuary, with an area of 20-48 sq km, is an ideal habitat for elephants, but over the last decade their population has gone up to over 40 which is forcing the animals to come out of the forest frequently.
The sanctuary is home to more than 291 species of birds, elephants, leopards, jungle cats, civet cats, mongoose, Chinese pangolins, Indian foxes, sambhar deer, barking deer and Malayan giant squirrels, besides gibbons.
