IDUKKI: A 70-year-old woman lost her life in a wild elephant attack in Kanjiraveli near Neriamangalam in Idukki on Monday, exactly a week after a 45-year-old auto-rickshaw driver was attacked and killed by a wild elephant in Munnar in the same district.
With this, a total of five deaths have been reported in Idukki due to wild elephant attacks in 2024.
As per the local officials, the deceased Indhira Ramakrishnan of Mundokkulathil house in Kanjiraveli was heading to her plantation to provide food for her husband, who was collecting arrowroot, when a wild elephant strayed into their farmland and attacked her.
Although she was immediately taken to a private hospital in Kothamangalam, she died on the way.
Wild animal menace is frequent in Kanjiraveli as the village is being tucked five kilometers away from the national highway at Neriamangalam, surrounded by the Neriyamangalam forest range on one side.
Sheeja S, a local resident said a forest fire was reported in the Neriamangalam range a few days ago after which the pachyderms had strayed into the Periyar River and were roaming in the village.
“The residents were trying to drive the elephants back to the forest. The incident happened when the elephant herd was crossing the village to the reserve forest on the other side,” she said.
Sheeja said since the elephant menace is frequent in the village, normal life of residents have severely been hit. “Although the department has erected fencing on the forest border points, no proper maintenance is done,” she said.
Following the incident, Kerala forest minister A K Saseendran has directed the chief conservator of forests to convene an immediate meeting and to appoint a special team in the area to conduct 24-hour patrolling.
The minister has also directed the officials to take immediate steps to compensate the victim’s family and provide them with all necessary support.
On February 26, an auto rickshaw driver Suresh Kumar was killed in a wild elephant attack at Kannimala Top Division of Munnar.
Similarly, an 85-year-old man named Palraj, a resident of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, was also trampled to death by a wild elephant in the Thenmala estate of KDHP in Munnar on January 22.
A 48-year-old woman was killed after being attacked by a wild elephant at the Panniyar estate in Santhanpara when she was heading for work in the tea plantation on January 8.
A 68-year-old man named Saundar Raj, a resident of BL Ram in Chinnakanal, who was attacked by a wild elephant when he was working at his plantation, on January 23, died at the Theni Medical College Hospital on January 26.
