69-year-old dies in elephant attack Chinna Thadagam in Coimbatore, third this month

Farmers and residents alleged that the forest staff did not give them prior information about elephant movement and staged a protest
Elephant image used for representational purposes only.
Elephant image used for representational purposes only.
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COIMBATORE: A 69-year-old man killed in a wild elephant attack at Dhaliyur near Chinna Thadagam on Thursday morning. The deceased has been identified as K Natarajan of Dhalliyur. The incident occurred two km from the forest when he went for a walk at 6 am alone. This is the third human death reported in Coimbatore forest division within a month . The negative interactions with elephants are likely to go up in the coming months as summer is approaching and animals would come out of forest in search of food and water.

Meanwhile, farmers and residents alleged that the forest staff did not give them prior information about elephant movement even though the department formed a WhatsApp group to post such alerts and staged a protest on Thadagam -Thudiyalur road.

AIADMK MLA PRG Arun Kumar and Tamil Nadu Farmers President K Kandhasamy joined the protesters. Later, Natarajan’s body was sent to CMCH for autopsy.

“We have advised residents to avoid walking near the forest fringes in the dark. The death of Nataraj is unexpected and the animal would be monitored round the clock . Such incidents will be prevented in future and we will be driving animals back into the forest. Based on the people’s demand we will be deploying a kumki elephant,” said a forest department official

In another incident, three TNEB staff who were travelling in a jeep escaped with minor injury after a tusker toppled the vehicle as the driver panicked after noticing it near Athaliamman temple on Navamalai road near Aliyar at 11 am on Thursday. The lone tusker (Chilli komban) allegedly went aggressive and toppled the vehicle into a 10-foot gorge, and the vehicle got stuck in a tree. Following the information,Pollachi forest range field staff chased the tusker away and took to the personnel to a nearby PHC where they were given first aid.

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