MADIKERI: A 63-year-old farmer was killed in a wild elephant attack reported in Kodagu. The incident took place at Biruga village of Ponnampet taluk on Monday morning. Ayyamada Madaiah is the victim.
During early morning hours, Madaiah left home to take a morning walk. However, he was confronted by a lone tusker on Biruga main road. He is said to have tried escaping from the spot after he climbed onto the road towards an estate. However, the tusker threw him away and he died on the spot after suffering serious injuries on his head.
The incident is said to have taken place around 6.45 am. Both villagers as well as farmers gathered in large numbers at the incident spot and rushed to the incident spot. They staged a protest, shouted slogans against the forest department and demanded the presence of higher officials from the department. CCF Manoj Kumar Tripati, Virajpet DCF Jagannath and Madikeri DCF Bhaskar visited the spot around noon hours.
The villagers and farmers voiced their anguish against the officials and offered to file a police complaint against the department for the death of the farmer. They demanded that the elephant be captured immediately and also refused to let the officials shift the body for postmortem.
CCF Tripati confirmed that there was an ongoing capture mission at Shanivarasanthe and assured to capture the elephant shortly. The department immediately handed over Rs 15 lakh compensation to the victim’s family and assured to extend Rs 4000 monthly pension to the family. They also assured to chase the elephants herded in the estates back to the forests.
The villagers later agreed for a postmortem. Sources confirmed that the victim had recently built a new house and invited the villagers for the housewarming ceremony that was scheduled to be held this week.
“The department must immediately take steps to chase the elephants back to the forests. The victim’s daughter must be given a job in the department. If the department fails to chase the elephants back to the forests, villagers and farmers will hold a massive protest,” said Chengappa, a farmer leader from the village.