Kannur: Ebin Sebastian, a 21-year-old catering worker, was killed in a suspected elephant attack at Rajagiri on the fringes of Karnataka forest in Kannur's Cherupuzha grama panchayat.
Ebin was the first of the two sons of Shaju Kattathu and Sajini Sebastian of Sevens, an area near Vazhakundam in the Edavaramba ward.
Around 5 am on Wednesday, passersby found Ebin with multiple injuries, including a crack on the back of his head, in an arecanut plantation along the Kariyankode River at Kanamvayal, around 10km from his house.
There were tell-tale signs of an elephant trampling through the arecanut plantation. The passersby called Thomas, a social activist and bank employee in the neighbourhood. He called in the panchayat jeep and took Ebin to a cooperative hospital in Cherupuzha. As his condition was critical, the hospital referred him to Kannur Government Medical College at Pariyaram. Ebin did not survive the journey to the medical college hospital.
Thomas said it appeared that the elephant flung Ebin with its trunk.
According to Edavaramba ward member Mathew Karithankal, Ebin left home with his friends Tuesday night. "We don't know the purpose. It must have been a get-together," he said.
Residents found Ebin's scooter parked near Pius Xth Church at Kanamvayal. He was found injured around 100m down off the Forest Road on the fringes of Munthari Forest in Karnataka.
K F Alexander, the panchayat member of Rajagiri ward, where the suspected elephant attack took place, said the area had seen elephant raids till last year. "Four months ago, the panchayat erected a 14-km-long solar fence to protect four wards," he said.
The solar fence protects Pulingome (No. 5), Kariyikkara (7), Rajagiri (8), and Josegiri (9) wards. "But there are areas left unprotected because there is no habitation. The attack happened in such a place," said Alexander.
Four years ago, an elephant killed a man at Odakolly, on the other side of the river, in the Kasaragod district.
On March 17, a wild elephant killed a person in Kannur's Aralam Farm, 80km from Kanamvayal.
