Munnar: A teenage boy and his two sisters are struggling to eke out a living amid miseries after a wild elephant trampled their mother to death and the father remarried.

With the Forest department yet to allocate compensation for their mother's death, the son, 19-year-old Manoj, was forced to discontinue studies to work as a daily wage labourer and support his two younger sisters.

Manoj, Preethi (16), and Priyadarshini (13) are children of Mahendra Kumar and the late Viji, who resided in the Vaguvarai estate of Kannan Devan company here.

A wild elephant attacked and killed Viji in the wee hours of September 24, 2021. She was riding pillion on a motorbike, and the couple was terrified to see a wild tusker standing in the middle of the road on the Pooppara bend. They fell down from the bike even as the tusker attacked the duo. While Kumar managed to escape, the elephant trampled Viji to death.

Kumar remarried just four months after Viji's death and left his children behind. Manoj was then forced to drop his studies and work as a daily wage labourer. He finances his sisters' education and enrolled both of them at a hostel in Tamil Nadu. Preeti studies in Pus one while Priyadarshini is a Class 8 student.

The Forest department had handed over Rs 10, 000 as an immediate allowance but failed to provide the Rs five lakh compensation so far.