This is the heartbreaking moment an elephant was found dead after being electrocuted by a fence next to a fruit grove.<br /><br />National Park officers rushed to the scene after locals reported the lifeless jumbo in Chachoengsao, eastern Thailand last Wednesday morning (April 29).<br /><br />They found a female tusker, believed to be around eight to 10-years old, lying on the ground next to an electric fence placed to keep the creatures out of the area, where they would often steal mangoes.<br /><br />Officers found several burn wounds on the wild elephant's carcass including marks on both of her front feet and her trunk.<br /><br />The land owner Suk Noisakol, 62, said his fruit groves had been regularly invaded by the jumbos so he laid the electric fences to scare them away.<br /><br />He said: "The fences only have 12 Volts, as these were made to scare the elephants when they tried to enter my farm but not kill them."<br /><br />Wildlife staff believed that the electric transformer might have been jammed and caused the stronger voltage to flow, enough to kill the jumbo.<br /><br />Local deputy chief officer Anek Wongsa said: "The landowner used the power from his house which was 220 Volts. He transformed it to 12 Volts at the transformer.<br /><br />"We believed that the machine might be faulty because it gave out a stronger current that then killed the elephant.''<br /><br />Police said they had questioned the land owner but had not arrested him as they are waiting for the autopsy result of the elephant.<br /><br />Police Colonel Nattajak Chanla said: "We need the examination result on the cause of the elephant's death first before we decide if any action should be taken against the landowner who owned the eclectic fence.''
