Officials of the forest department on Saturday prevented seven elephants from drinking the contaminated water of the Kho river in Kotdwar. The contamination had killed thousands of fish.

Chief Wildlife Warden SK Chandola told The Indian Express, “I was carrying out an inspection in the Chilla range of the Rajaji National Park when we came to know of thousands of fish having died in the Kho river. We rushed to the area as it is a corridor for the movement of elephants.”

He said the officials reached just in time to find seven elephants ready to get into the river. “We resorted to continuous firing and had to explode strong crackers to scare them away into the jungle,” said Chandola. He added the exercise continued for three hours.

Chandola said the forest department found an empty bottle of an insecticide that may have been emptied into the river. “It was after three hours that we saw fresh fish moving in the river. We later allowed the elephants to drink water from the river,” he said. A police case has been registered on the issue and samples of the dead fish sent for forensic analysis.