Jumbo kills tribal man, ransacks ration shop near Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: A 60-year-old tribal man was trampled to death by a wild elephant in Coimbatore on Saturday night. The deceased was identified as Marudachalam (60) from Attukal tribal settlement near Thondamuthur.

He was returning along with three other relatives from a temple in the forest area, when the incident happened.

“As the elephant came charging, three others managed to escape to safety. But, it caught Marudachalam by its trunk and flung him to the ground. It then trampled him to death and stood in the same area, while hampering efforts by relatives to retrieve his body,” said an official.

A team of forest department staff on Sunday morning sent the body for a post-mortem at Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital. Similarly, another team had a narrow escape when the elephant they were attempting to drive away attacked their jeep on Sunday morning.

In another wildlife-related incident in Valparai near Coimbatore, a wild elephant broke the doors of a ration shop and pulled out sacks of rice and other essentials stocked inside by using its trunk. A large quantity of essentials, meant for supply to cardholders, had gone to waste in the elephant’s rampage.

In The Nilgiris, two kumkis were deployed to monitor a wild elephant in conflict with human beings at ‘O’ Valley in Gudalur. Brought from Mudumalai Elephant Camp, the kumkis were engaged in patrolling along the forest boundary to monitor the elephant suspected of having killed a 62-year-old estate worker in the New Hope area.

“Efforts will be taken to translocate the elephant if it continues to cause trouble,” said an official.