SRIKAKULAM: A 65-year-old tribal woman was on Saturday evening trampled to death by a herd of wild elephants at a cashew orchard in Heerapuram village of Meliaputti mandal. The deceased has been identified as Neelamma, a resident of the village.
According to the district forest officer, the woman was deaf, mute and partially blind. She was collecting cashew fruits from the garden in the outskirts of the village when the incident occurred. As part of Operation Gajendra, a joint team of forest, police and revenue personnel have been trying to chase away a herd of eight wild elephants back to Odisha’s forests since March 28 with the support of trained mahouts Ganesh and Jayanth from Kuppam in Chittoor district.
As the woman was deaf, she did not hear the announcements made by the Forest Department alerting nearby villagers to keep away when the team drives away the herd. The pachyderms trampled the woman while being chased. The DFO said the herd had almost entered Odisha.