To the dismay of the wildlife lovers and all concerned citizens, a project to prevent incidences of electrocution of wild animals, mainly elephants in their corridor in Nilgiri,has failed to take off. Although about four years have elapsed since clearing of the proposal following a joint meeting between the Forest and the Electricity department, yet hardly any tangible development occurred so far.The works to be done under the project by these departments for the safety of jumbos now remain confined within the files. On the other hand, these departments are apparently involved in an exercise of shifting their responsibilities on each other. Under the project there was a plan to bring modifications in the high voltage supply lines in the Sajnagarh area covering the patches of Tinikosia, Ayodhya, Gopalpur and Tenda etc.The improvements include heightening of the electrical poles to 9 metres, insulating the wires and incorporating circuit breakers in the transformers. All these measures while were expected to help prevent electrocution of elephants to a large extent, an estimation of Rs4.72 crore was made to be spent in the project for north Odisha. DFO Harshbardhan Udgata said, “About a year ago, our department had placed an amount of Rs21 lakh for the implementation of the project, but nothing has been done so far. Without incorporation of these measures in the supply lines there is every possibility of electrocution of jumbos. Under the existing circumstances, we have been instructing the department for power cuts in the elephant movement areas.” Besides the resident elephants, every year a large number of jumbos, over 100 in number, from outside, mainly from Jharkhand, stray into Baleswar and Mayurbhanj district forests. Their usual visit takes place between end of November and first week of December each year coinciding with the harvest season for Kharif paddy, he informed. Honorary wildlife warden Jayant Mardaraj said, “There is every chance of electrocution of elephants since the live wires are hanging down and transformers are unprotected. Hence, the issue needs to be addressed with utmost urgency.”In the want of permanent measures while the department is resorting to snapping of power, the local residents are aggrieved, the local residents opined. However, Nesco SE Braja Sundar Parida said, “For electrical installation works on turnkey basis for avoiding electrocution of elephants inside elephant corridor in Baleswar, Jajpur, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj districts, tender has already been invited and the project would start very soon.”