A male adult elephant was found electrocuted in reserved forest of Karadimadai beat in Madhukkarai range of Coimbatore Forest Division on Friday, prompting the Forest Department to verify with the Electricity Department if the HT Transformer pole, from which one of the lines that provided supply to a private farm had caused the death, had been installed as per norms.

Inquiries indicated that the elephant aged about 25 years had grabbed with its trunk a 22 kv line.

After inspecting the spot and ascertaining the cause of death on the basis of inputs provided by Forest Veterinary Officer N. Venkatesh Prabu, District Forest Officer and Field Director of Anamalai Tiger Reserve, checked with senior Electricity Department officials and advocated rectifications.

The Electricity Department officials are learnt to have explained that the pole on which such transformers are mounted are of 30 feet height, of which 5 feet should be inside the ground and 25 feet above the ground, and that the HT transformers are placed at a height of ten feet from the ground surface.

The incident, according to them, was unusual, since elephants normally do not get close to the HT transformer due a continuous noise.

The Forest Department, it is learnt, had been calling upon the Electricity Department to raise the height of electric wires hanging low.