Two trampled to death by wild elephants in Coimbatore, Erode

COIMBATORE: Two persons were trampled to death in separate elephant attacks in Erode and Coimbatore districts.

Forest department officials said Maadhan (55), from Vaidyanathapuram near Germalam, was trampled to death by a wild elephant when he had gone to bring back his cows left for grazing along the forest area in Thalavadi in Erode on Thursday night.

He owns five cows, which he used to leave for grazing in the morning and bring them to his farm shed in the evening.

The farmer was caught unaware, when a wild elephant emerged from the thicket and caught him by its trunk, before flinging him to the ground. The elephant then trampled him to death.

On hearing his loud cries, some villagers who were also grazing cattle nearby rushed to his rescue and drove away the elephant by raising a loud noise. On receiving information, the Germalam forest department officials arrived and sent the body of the deceased for a post-mortem examination at Sathyamangalam Government Hospital.

In Coimbatore, Sivaraj (33), a daily wager from Lal Bahadur Shastri Nagar was consuming liquor along with his friend at a vacant land near Thaliyur, when a wild elephant chased and attacked him to death on the spot on Wednesday late night.

In another incident of conflict, a wild elephant along with its calf entered the premises of a house at IOB Colony in Coimbatore on Friday early morning.

The elephant broke open the doors of the house and searched for food with its trunk. However, as it couldn’t find anything, the elephant, and calf left the spot. Meanwhile, the family members, who woke up panicked, rushed to the first floor of the house to save themselves.