Naveen Patnaik orders crime branch inquiry into death of seven elephants in Odisha's Dhenkanal district

Dhenkanal (Odisha): Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday ordered a crime branch inquiry into the incident of electrocution of seven elephants near Kamalanga village in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district. [caption id=“attachment_1482527” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Naveen Patnaik. AFP[/caption] The chief minister directed the crime branch to take appropriate action in case of any criminal negligence. Apart from this, the state government also suspended six officials and sacked a junior engineer of the Central Electricity Supply Utility (CESU), while the forest department suspended three of its field staff including Dhenkanal Range Officer. Seven elephants died in Dhenkanal due to non-rectification of sagging lines and non-cabling of transmission lines. Passing the buck to the electricity department, the forest department said that in 2017, the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Dhenkanal had submitted a stretch of 136.57 kilometres of low-tension lines passing through vulnerable areas for cabling.