Wild elephant tramples woman to death in Coimbatore

Chennai, Feb 13 (BPNS)

A 59-year-old woman was trampled to death by a wild elephant on Sunday evening. The Tamil Nadu forest department identified the woman as Karupathal wife of Sakthivel near Karamadai in Coimbatore.

According to forest officials, Karupathal had gone to the border of the forest area for grazing her cattle. Suddenly a wild elephant arrived from the forest and the woman tried to run away. However the elephant, according to forest department sources took her by the trunk and threw her and later trampled the woman to death.

The body of Karupathal is at Mettupalayam government hospital for postmortem. Senior officials of the Tamil Nadu forest department reached the spot and held an inquiry on the attack by the wild elephant.

It may be noted that the Tamil Nadu forest department is in the process of using electric fences in areas where human, and animal conflict takes place, and with the killing of Karupathal the emergency for erecting the fence has increased.

A senior officer of the Tamil Nadu forest department told BPNS that the department has already submitted a proposal to the state government on the measures to be taken to prevent attack by wild elephants and other animals in human settlements thus bringing out damage to people and property.