18th Nov. 2018


For a week now, farmers in Kamalanga village of Odisha’s Dhenkanal district have been visiting a fallow patch of land to offer prayers to ensure that they are kept “safe from misfortune”.The patch, recently dug and refilled, makes for a strange prayer spot. Over the loose soil, fetid odours hang, mixing with the smell of foul water seeping up and drawing frenzied flies. Fifty-year-old Bhima Bhoi tiptoes to the edge of the spot, his head bowed in prayer. He ignores the acres of green surrounding the place, where the grass smells sweet and wildflowers wave in the breeze. He hisses angrily at a curious boy, who saunters over.

Prayer over, he mumbles an ominous prediction. “When gajaraj (elephant) dies during the Gajalakshmi Puja, end is near.”

It was here, on this patch of land, that seven elephants died due to electrocution on October 26, after coming in contact with a low-hanging 11 KV power line. The seven deaths in one incident was Odisha’s worst pachyderm tragedy through electrocution.

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