Lightning strike suspected in deaths of 18 elephants in India and 350 rare antelopes in Kazakhstan

National Post Staff 4 days ago

Thunderbolts are being blamed for the mass deaths of two endangered species that occurred within days of each other.

© Provided by National Post The dead body of a wild elephant, suspected to have been killed by lightning, lays with flower petals and incense after locals offered prayers on a hillside in Nagaon district of Assam state on May  14.

Experts say a massive jolt of lightning resulted in the sudden death of 18 wild Asian elephants in the country’s eastern state of Assam last week.

Villagers discovered the scattered bodies, including of five calves, in a forest reserve in the Nagaon district 160 km from the state capital. The Assam government has launched a high-level inquiry into the incident, Parimal Suklabaidya, state forest and wildlife minister, told Reuters .

“A preliminary report suggests the deaths could be due to lightning although we need to find out through forensic tests if there could be any other reason like poisoning or disease,” noted the minister. In subsequent statements on Twitter , adding he was “deeply pained” by the deaths, he announced a detailed report would be provided by an AFS Officer and a team of veterinarians next week.

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Photos from elephants’ burial show them covered in “severe burn marks,” tweeted his office. A forest ranger, who chose to remain anonymous because he wasn’t allowed to talk to the media, said he found charred trees in the area.

According to media reports, India is home to 30,000 wild Asian elephants, around 60 per cent of the world total, of which twenty per cent, or 6,000, are in Assam.

In a similar occurrence, the ecological ministry in Kazakhstan reported last week that lightning strikes were probably behind the death of 350 highly endangered Saiga antelopes in the country’s west. “There are traces of lightning strikes on the carcasses,” they wrote in a statement to AFP .

The critically endangered species, known by its drooping, snout-like trunk, have existed since the Ice Age but suffered a dramatic decline in 2015 when a bacterial disease halved its population in Kazakhstan in two weeks, according to CBS . However, their population is expected to recover, more than doubling , from 152,600 to 334,400, in two years.

A researcher told Indian Express it’s possible that a single lightning strike could travel across several bodies in proximity as has been deemed likely. “In lightning safety, we advise people to stay at least 2 m away from one another under thunderstorm conditions — long before COVID-19 restrictions were set forth,” the researcher said.

An elephant’s size could also make it significantly more vulnerable than, say, a rat, as the spark passes through a larger mass, the outlet reported.

In 2019, over 200 sheep died in Nepal following a thunderstorm. More than 300 reindeer in a Norwegian plateau were wiped out in a similar disaster in 2016. Scientists said at the time that while the animals were huddled together during bad weather, a jolt of lightning could have traveled through the wet ground, and body to body, with a single charge being enough to stop their hearts en masse.

With files from Reuters