MYSORE: A 63-year-old Tibetan was trampled to death by a wild elephant at ‘I’ Village, a Tibetan Camp near Odeyara Palya in Kollegal taluk of Chamarajanagar district on Sunday morning.
The deceased has been identified as Wango.
He was attacked by the tusker when he was on his way to a dairy near the camp in Bailur forest range.
He is believed to be the fifth victim claimed by the wild tusker in the last six months.
The tusker which entered the backyard of a house after breaking the gate ate jackfruit on the premises. Later it jumped out of the compound and stood on the roadside eating leaves. It trampled Wango when he walking on the road.
The 40-year old elephant is believed to have trampled to death four people at Uyilnath, PG Palya, Andekurubara Doddi and Hosapodu before its latest attack on Sunday.
Two weeks ago, the elephant trampled to death Kunneramma (55), a tribal woman in Hosapodu, a tribal haadi. The incident happened when she came out of her house at night after hearing the screaming of her son who was chased by the tusker when he went to scare it away to save banana plants in the backyard, according to environmentalist N Krishnamurthy.
Before this, the same tusker had killed a person belonged to Lambani community at Andekurubara Doddi in the region. “Hundreds of locals staged a protest urging the forest department to catch tusker and erect a solar fence to save tribal people”, he said.
Krishnamurthy, who is also a member of the village forest committee, said that the wild tusker become deadly for the tribals and efforts are being made to drive away elephant into forest. But the villagers want it to be caught and not driven away. Because if it chased away, people of the new place will also meet the same fate, he said.
Bailur Range Forest Officer Mahadevaiah said that an operation was launched to drive away the elephant with the help of Dasara elephants Gajendra and Srirama. But the wild elephant started roaming around at nights after the operation was launched.