Mentally ill among two killed by elephants in Kovai

Forest and police personnel were conducting inquiries which were taken place in the Madukkarai and Mettupalayam range. In the first incident, the victim was identified as K Kaaliammal (33) from Perumalkovilpathy hamlet in Madukkarai. 

Inquiry revealed that she was mentally ill over the last three months and was missing from her house from Saturday morning. On late Sunday evening, the woman was found dead with external injuries outside the reserve forest, about one-and-a-half kilometers away from her house. 

Forest department personnel said that the woman was found dead in the Karadimadai section of Mangalapalayam West Beat in Madukkarai Range. They said that the nature of injuries she suffered led to suspicion that she could have been trampled to death by a jumbo. Her body was taken to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital for post-mortem. 

In the other incident the victim was identified as C Bathran (55) of Oomapalayam who was a sanitary worker in Odanthurai Panchayat. The incident happened when he was returning home around 10.40 pm and the lone animal chased him at a grove near Muniyappan temple in Ramasamy nagar and attacked him with its tusk. Villagers rescued him and rushed him to the Mettupalayam Government Hospital where he died shortly. Forest personnel said that Rs 50,000 each was handed over to the families of the victims as immediate relief. They added that the remaining relief of Rs 3.5 lakh per victim will be handed over to their families shortly.

Efforts to drive a herd of 31 elephants in the forest at Bodurpallam near Hosur in Krishnagiri district brought traffic to stand still for an hour on the Rayakottai Road, on Monday morning. Forest personnel said that the herd divided into  smaller groups, entered agricultural lands and were feasting on the farmer’s produce over the last few  days. On Monday, forest personnel began efforts to drive that herd to the Maarachandhiram forest in Denkanikottai. Since the herd had to cross the Hosur to Rayakottai Road, traffic was halted on both sides of the road for an hour to avoid accidents or other untoward incidents.