Wild elephants go on rampage in village near Coimbatore, kill youth and injure five others

COIMBATORE: A 24-year-old youth who was attempting to drive away a tusker from his village near Thondamuthur in Coimbatore district was trampled to death by it on Sunday night. Two more tuskers entered the Viraliyur village on Sunday night and early Monday morning and attacked five people who sustained injuries and were admitted to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) for treatment.

The deceased has been identified as R Karthik of Indira Colony at Viraliyur. He was a wall painter.

Forest department officials said a lone tusker strayed out of the reserve forest and entered Viraliyur village around 8pm on Sunday. The village is located at least three km away from the reserve forest.

S Baskaran, 55, a priest in Viraliyur, was walking back home from a temple when he was attacked by a lone tusker. He suffered injuries on his legs. The villagers alerted the frontline staff of the forest department who were driving away wild elephants in nearby Narasipuram. They rushed to Viraliyur. The frontline staff rescued Baskaran and took him to CMCH. A section of frontline staff was following the footprint of the tusker to drive away. It was raining there.

Around 9.30 pm, another lone tusker entered a farmland in Viraliyur. Karthik and his friend A Harish, 22, of Kanuvai, attempted to chase the wild elephant. They were said to be drunk.

The duo took videos on their mobile phones and attempted to drive away the tusker by running behind it.

Suddenly, the wild elephant charged the duo. The elephant trampled Karthik to death. Harish sustained a fracture on his left hand and minor injury on his forehead. Harish was admitted to the CMCH.

The dead body of Karthik was sent to the CMCH for postmortem. The forest department gave an immediate compensation of Rs 50,000 to the family members of the deceased. The remaining Rs 9.5 lakh will be given to them soon.

“The duo, who were under the influence of alcohol, ran behind the animal. We have repeatedly requested the villagers not to venture out of their residence if any wild animal movement was reported. However, some villagers did not bother about the wild elephants and tried to drive away the animal. This would end man-animal conflict,” said an official from the forest department.

The forest department chased away the second tusker to the reserve forest around 11 pm.

Meanwhile, another tusker that was returning to the reserve forest from Viraliyur village around 6.50 am on Monday pushed down three men – S Kalisamy, 75, Vellaiyappan, 74 and S Sundarasamy , 56, of Viraliyur village. They suffered minor injuries. The forest department frontline staff rescued them and sent them to the CMCH.

Former AIADMK minister and Thondamuthur MLA SP Velumani and a group of villagers from Thondamuthur constituency petitioned Coimbatore district collector Kranthi Kumar Pati on Monday, seeking necessary action to save the lives and properties of the people from wild elephants.

“The lone tusker that killed a youth should be captured and translocated to other areas. The forest department and the district administration should ensure the safety of people who are residing near the forest fringe villages,” said Velumani.

The district collector assured the villagers that appropriate action would be taken to prevent man-animal conflict in Thondamuthur and surrounding areas.


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