NILGIRIS: Two persons, including a tribal man, were killed in separate incidents of wild elephant attacks in Nilgiris district on Monday night and Tuesday morning, respectively.
In the first incident, the deceased has been identified as P Rajappan (40), a resident of Masinagudi Group house. He was found dead on the revenue land near the stone quarry at 10.30 pm on Monday at the Singara forest range in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR). Sources said after hearing the elephant trumpeting, the forest department staff carried out patrolling. However, after an hour-long search, Rajappan's body was found allegedly trampled by the elephant.
Investigation revealed that Rajappan was a local temple priest, heading home through a stone quarry. However, the elephant grazing nearby trampled him to death.
"Since it was dark and the elephant was also trumpeting often, we did not approach the animal and searched nearby. However, after the animal left, we intensified our search and found Rajappan's body," a forest department official said. Following this, his body was taken to Udhagamandalam GH for a postmortem on Tuesday morning. After the postmortem, his body was handed over to the kin of the deceased along with a compensation of Rs 50,000.
In the second incident, a 28-year-old tribal man was killed when he visited a temple. The deceased has been identified as C Ragu, an Irula man. He, along with his friends, was returning to the hamlet after visiting the temple located near the stream passing along the forest boundary
"The incident occurred at 2 am on Tuesday, and Ragu was killed on the spot by a wild elephant. The others managed to escape and informed us about it. We have warned them against wandering close to forest boundaries to avert such incidents and asked them to inform the forest department helpline number 180042545456 if they spot wild animals. The staff will visit and send the animals back into the forest," said Kotagiri forest range officer Selvaraj.
