Wild elephants kill 70-year-old in Thrissur; enraged villagers storm forest station

Thrissur: A 70-year-old man was killed after a herd of wild elephants attacked him at Chaippankuzhi in Thrissur on Monday around 6 am. The deceased is Thaikkoodan Subrahmanian of Vellikulangara, Chaippankuzhi. He was on his way to a nearby shop for tea when the jumbos charged at him and trampled him to death.

The herd, including a young tuskless calf, attacked Subrahmanian near the forest station. Following the incident, locals staged a protest at the Chaippankuzhi Forest Station. They vandalised the forest office and the official vehicle parked there. Protesters also entered the office and quarrelled with the officials. 

“When a wild elephant destroyed crops earlier, the district collector and forest officials had promised us immediate action to resolve the issue. However, no action has been taken yet. A man who went out for tea was killed in a wild elephant attack this morning. The forest department is spending money unnecessarily, yet it has still not constructed a trench to prevent wild animals from entering human settlements. Our protest is against their lapses in addressing the human-wildlife conflict,” said a protester.

Chaippankuzhi is a village close to the Athirappilly waterfalls in Thrissur. According to local residents, wild elephant attacks have been rampant in the area for a long time. They added that farmers are facing huge losses as wild animals continue to stray into their farmlands.

This is the second death in a wild elephant attack reported in the state recently. On Saturday, a forest watcher who was on tiger census duty was trampled to death by a wild jumbo in Agali forest.