Tura, Oct 14: A female adult hoolock gibbon, a highly endangered primate species rarely found in the planet, has died after getting electrocuted in Tura’s Gandrak Dare area on Saturday morning.
Power lines installed in the area through which the gibbons regularly pass through has been identified to be the cause of the tragedy.
This is the second death of an adult endangered primate in Tura in the last two years.
The gibbon was heading back to the foothills of Tura peak after its daily round of adventure among the trees that dot the Gandrak waterfalls when tragedy struck.
It came in contact with a live wire from one of the power lines passing through the area leading to its electrocution. The primate was a sub adult female weighing 6 kg, informed wildlife personnel who were dispatched to the site to retrieve the body.
Complaints galore against MEPDCL over power lines but no action taken.
Multiple complaints have been made against the Meghalaya Power distribution Corporation Limited and MeECL from both citizens of Upper Chandmari and even the Wildlife Department, highlighting the dangers posed by the realignment of electrical posts and transmission lines but the power officials refused to take an action or rectification in this regard.
“We have complained about the power lines and also requested the MeECL several times to take action since it fell in the route used by the hoolock gibbons,” informed Wildlife Divisional Forest Officer Rupankar Marak.
Besides the wildlife department, even the citizens of Upper Chandmari, Adinggre and Gandrak Dare have been complaining since as far as 2021 against what they term “haphazard” and “highly dangerous” drawing of the power lines close to peoples’ homes.
Aware of the danger posed to the endangered hoolock gibbons, the citizens even pointed out that power lines were passed over trees where the gibbons spent time every day in the Gandrak Dare area. Today that very area has resulted in the loss of a precious endangered primate due to callousness of the power corporation and its officials.
