In yet another instance of man-animal conflict, elephants trampled a farmer to death at Galigenahalli village near here on Sunday. The deceased was identified as Narasimhamurthy (60).
According to police, Narasimhamurthy and his son Shashikumar set out from home for their fields to irrigate the paddy crop.
When they were on their way, two elephants picked up Narasimhamurthy, tossed him down and trampled him. The helpless son was witness to the entire gory episode. The elephants had entered the area last night and damaged crops, police said.
When the Deputy Conservator of Forests arrived at the spot, the villagers staged an impromptu protest alleging that the forest department had failed to check the elephant menace. Following this, Deputy Commissioner S K Sathyamurthy visited the farmer’s house and issued a cheque of `3 lakh as compensation to the kin of the deceased.
Satyamurthy also assured the villagers of compensation for the damaged crops.
He said the district administration will take steps to prevent elephants from entering the villages and added that forest officials were doing their best to chase the pachyderms back into the forest.