Electric wire traps set up for wild elephants turn into death traps for locals

Although it’s illegal to construct electric fences in the fields, the locals in northern and southern belts have been doing that to ward off wild elephants, according to the Division Forest Office in Jhapa.

On July 13, Badri Thapaliya, 60, a resident of Magurmadi in Mechinagar Municipality Ward No. 9, Jhapa, came across a naked wire hanging by the electric wire trap set for wild elephants. Unaware that the wire still had active electricity flowing through it, Thapathaliya grabbed a hold of it and died of electrocution.