Coimbatore, Jun 2: Four people, including a 12-year-old girl and two women, were trampled to death by a tusker at Ganeshapuram and Vellalore in Coimbatore city in the early hours of Friday.
The deceased have been identified as Gayathri, 12, daughter of Vijayakumar of Ganeshapuram, P Palanisamy, 73, of Kambar Street at Vellalore, B Nagarathinam, 50, and her friend M Jothimani, 68, of Vellalore.
The tusker came out of the forest on Wednesday night and attacked two anti-poaching watchers near BK Pudur. The tusker was sent back to the forest in the early hours of Thursday. Two special teams were deployed in Madukkarai forest on Thursday night to monitor the elephant.
However, the elephant -- aged between 20 and 25 -- came out of the forest and entered residential area at Ganeshapuram near Podanur in the early hours of Friday.
Gayathri, her father Vijayakumar, mother Thangamani and two of her siblings were sleeping in the front yard of their house. Around 3.15am, they heard the sound of an elephant and were taken by surprise as it entered the portico and attacked them.
The tusker first caught hold of Vijaykumar and threw him away. Later, it attacked Thangamani, who tried to safeguard her three children. By the time Vijaykumar recovered and tried to rescue his family, the elephant had attacked Gayathri and trampled her.
Thangamani could protect her two other children -- Rithika, 7, and Vetrimaran, 4 - from the elephant.
"We were completely shocked. We did not know what to do. We were sleeping. The elephant tried to enter the house and attacked us. We are devastated. My leg is hurt and my husband's arm is badly injured," said Thangamani who was inconsolable.
The relatives of the victims said that the area where they lived was extremely dangerous and lacked facilities. "We have no toilets or any other service in the area. We had to wait for over an hour to take Gayathri to hospital. She was alive till 4.30am. But lack of ambulance and transport facilities were the reasons for the loss of her life. We took her to the nearby private hospital in Sundarapuram where she was not treated at all. We had to wait. The doctors did not even give her first aid," alleged Thangamani.
Gayathri was later taken to another private hospital where she was declared brought dead.
Three more deaths
Meanwhile, the elephant travelled from Ganeshapuram for nearly 5km and reached Vellalore. Around 5am, it attacked Palanisamy, a farmer who had come to the field to relive himself.
Palanisamy, who He noticed some wild boars in the field, threw stones to drive them away, without noticing the elephant standing there. The elephant attacked Palanisamy. The elephant threw him away and trampled him to death.
The elephant later attacked Nagarathinam and Jothimani, who too had come out to attend nature's call. Relatives of Nagarathinam, Jothimani and Palanisamy said that these three lives could have been saved had the forest department alerted them.
G Kannan, a relative of Palanisamy, said, "The incident near Podanur took place around 3.15am. Had the forest department alerted people in villages in the 10 km radius, three lives could have been saved," he said.
Elephant tranquilised
Meanwhile, officials attempted to chase away the elephant to the forest. But it continued to roam in the residential area, and forest officials decided to tranquilise it.
More than 100 police personnel were deployed in the area. Kumkis were also brought.
Around noon, the animal was tranquilised.
Comments
Add new comment