COIMBATORE: A 63-year-old man died in a wild elephant attack at Srinagar on Pannimadai-Varapalayam road near Chinnathadagam on Wednesday night. The deceased was identified as M Somasundaram, a resident of Mariamman Kovil Street in Chinna Thadagam. The incident took place when he was riding a bicycle around 9 pm.
According to forest sources, the elephant could have pushed Somasundaram down and trampled him to death. His body was sent to the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital for postmortem examination. The body and the initial compensation of Rs 50,000 were handed over to the deceased’s kin. Coimbatore forest range officer A M N Siva said, “No one saw the incident happening. We visited the spot based on the alert from the locals, and confirmed it.”
Did ‘Shankar’ cross over to Kerala?
Coimbatore: The massive operation to capture Shankar, a wild elephant, entered day-3, with the officials nowhere closer to their goal than they had started. Latest reports pointed at the possibility of the elephant crossing the border and vanishing in Kerala forests. Officials said that Shankar was accustomed to going into Kerala forests. Shankar was last sighted with a herd of nine elephants at 6.45 am on Thursday. “We have informed the Kerala forest department to keep a track on him,” an official said.