NILGIRIS: A 62-year-old man was trampled to death by a wild elephant at New Hope near O-Valley forest range in Gudalur forest division on Monday morning.
The deceased was K Mani, a labourer at an estate in New Hope. He was attacked while heading to switch on the water pump motor in the estate at 9.45am. He was accompanied by another labourer, Durai. While Durai managed to escape, Mani was killed on the spot by the animal.
Mani’s relatives and residents of New Hope staged a protest with the body on the Gudalur road demanding the forest department to prevent the intrusion of wild elephants into human habitations. They prevented the police from taking the body to the Gudalur Government Hospital for postmortem.
Sources in the forest department said they had alerted about the movement of the elephant via WhatsApp. Unfortunately, the deceased failed to notice the elephant behind the bushes in the plantation.
Sources in O-Valley forest range said the area was free of wild elephant attacks in the last one year owing to efforts in diverting the animals back to the forest.
The body was taken for postmortem at 2.30pm after protesters were assured by the authorities that the elephant would be driven back into the forest. Mani’s body was later handed over to his family and an initial compensation of Rs 50,000 was given to his wife by the forest department staff.