Four people, including a minor girl and two women, trampled to death and two others were injured by a tusker at Vellalore in Coimbatore in the early hours of Friday. The lone tusker that intruded into the human habitations from nearby Madukkarai forests in search of food and water has come all the way into the city. The deceased have been identified as Gayathri (12) daughter of Vijayakumer of Ganesh Puram, Palanisamy (73) of Kamber Street, B Nagarathinam (50) and her friend M Jothimani (68) of Vellalore. After attacking two anti-poaching watchers near BK Pudur, the tusker sent back to the forest in the early hours of Thursday. However, on Friday the elephant came out of the forest and entered residential areas.
According to the police, the tusker intruded near Ettimadai on Friday mid-night, then it moved towards Arivoli Nagar and was found roaming in the streets of the city. The locals immediately alerted the forest staff. After several attempts, the forest staff managed to trace and chase the elephant back into the forest. But in the early hours of Friday morning, the tusker went into the house of a daily wage labor Vijayakumar at Srinivasa Nagar. He and his 12-year old girl Gayathri were sleeping in the front yard when the tusker attacked them, first, the elephant threw him away who suffered minor injuries and then trampled the 12-year old girl and she died on the spot. The incident happened around 3:15 am.
The elephant moved to Vellalore 10 km away from Srinivasa Nagar and attacked two women Nagarathinam and Jothimani, who were on their morning work, they also died on the spot. Later the elephant went to the farm of P Palanisamy, who came out his house to fetch water from the well and trampled to death by the tusker.
The deceased people have taken to CMCH (Coimbatore Medical College Hospital) for autopsy and others who sustained severe injuries due are currently undergoing treatment in the CMCH.
According to the District Forest Officer Ramasubhramanian, when a six-member forest department team trying to drive away the elephant to forest using firecrackers, suddenly the tusker turned against them and started chase them and attacked two of their officials. The duo rushed to the nearest hospital. The tusker continued to roam in the residential areas. The traffic was disrupted for some time as the elephant stood in the middle of the Coimbatore-Palakkad road. The officials trying to drive away the pachyderm into the forest by bringing kumkis (tamed elephants) and planned to tranquilize the elephant and around 100 police personnel deployed in the area for the ease of the operation. Environmentalists blame the incident on human encroachment for this man-animal conflict.
