NILGIRIS: A 37-year-old man was found dead in a suspicious manner at Devarsholai near Gudalur on Saturday morning.
The deceased has been identified as Jamsheer, a areca nut cultivator. He had a small portion of land at Devarsholai’s third division.
Initially, as Jamsheer did not return home, his family initiated a search for him and found his body on the roadside on Saturday at 6.30 am and informed the Gudalur forest division officials suspecting it to be a wild elephant attack.
Denying that Jamsheer was attacked and killed by a wild elephant, a forest department official said, “There were no symptoms of elephant attack as there were no tusk injuries or broken bones. We have only noticed a small five-inch hole on his stomach. We have also not found any elephant footprints in the surroundings. Since, it’s a case of suspicious death, we have handed the case over to the police.”
Reacting to this, A senior official from Gudalur station said, “We have sent the body to Gudalur government hospital for postmortem and we will take a decision on this case after getting the reports.”