ERODE: A 50-year-old man died after being attacked by a wild elephant on Bargur hills on Tuesday evening. The body was recovered on Wednesday morning.
The deceased was identified as V Maathan, a resident of Bejilatti Colony near Thamaraikarai village. Officials from the forest department said Maathan, who reared live stock, was grazing cattle along with his brother Perumal near the Irattai Kattu Pallam in Athani forest around 4 pm, when he went deep inside the forest area.
Shortly after, Perumal heard him screaming and along with locals went inside the forest and found out that Maathan had been attacked by an elephant. He then informed Anthiyur forest range officials and Bargur Police who rushed to the spot. Since the place where the incident took place was a dense forest, they did not venture inside as it had become dark.
“Our vehicle could not enter the forest area where the incident took place. We could reach there by foot and the elephant was still roaming there. Due to this, we could not recover his body immediately. So we made sure that wild animals did not bite into Maathan’s body and recovered it on Wednesday,” a police officer said. It was sent to Anthiyur GH for autopsy.