Elephants electrocuted in drunken rampage

updated 8:47 a.m. ET Oct. 23, 2007

GAUHATI, India - Six Asiatic wild elephants were electrocuted as they went berserk after drinking rice beer in India's remote northeast, a wildlife official said Tuesday.

Nearly 40 elephants came to a village on Friday looking for food. Some found beer, which farmers ferment and keep in plastic and tin drums in their huts, said Sunil Kumar, a state wildlife official.

They got drunk, uprooted a utility pole carrying power lines and were electrocuted in Chandan Nukat, a village nearly 150 miles west of Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya state, Kumar said.

"There would have been more casualties had the villagers not chased them away," said Dipu Mark, a local conservationist.

The elephants are known to have a taste for rice beer brewed by tribal communities in India's northeast. Four wild elephants died in similar circumstances in the region three years ago.

India's northeast accounts for the world's largest concentration of wild Asiatic elephants with the states of Assam and Meghalaya alone estimated to have 7,000 of them.

"It's great to have such a huge number of elephants, but the increasing man-elephant conflict following the shrinkage in their habitat due to the growing human population is giving us nightmares," said Pradyut Bordoloi, a former forest and environment minister for Assam.

More from msnbc.com Turning Points '72: Brokaw recalls Nixon's landslide  McGovern: I should've fought 'ridiculous' attacks AmEx rates credit risk by where you live, shop World Blog: Our secret war in Pakistan Briefing Book: The candidates and gun control  Special Report: Why we vote | What drives you?

MORE FROM ENVIRONMENT

Environment Section Front

Orphaned rhino adopted by park rangers Experts: Half of mammals in decline Flight of the penguins to freedom Cows may hold secret for efficient ethanol 99 percent of Alaska glaciers melting Cleaner way to drink from the seas? Venus flytraps face loss of habitat Environmental damage heavy after Ike Rare turtles fail to produce offspring Birds no longer flock to Ike-ravaged beach Environment Section Front   Add Environment headlines to your news reader: