Elephant tramples man to death; villagers to be provided security

An elephant claimed the life of a man at Palangala in Virajpet on Sunday.
The deceased is Karineravanda Ravi Kalaiah (64), a coffee grower. He was on a morning walk when the incident occurred.

As he did not return home from morning walk till 8 am, the family members started searching for him and found the body near his plantation. The elephant had lifted him and threw him to the fence of the plantation.

The severly injured Kalaiah died on the spot. As the news began to spread, a large number of villagers gathered and demanded the deputy commissioner to visit the spot. It was only in the afternoon that district forest officer Manoj Kumar visited the spot.

The villagers said, “The Forest department did not respond when Uday Uthappa was trampled to death by an elephant a few months ago. Had the Forest department taken preventive measure then, a life would have been saved in the village,” they said.

They said more than 13 elephants have been camping in the village.

No efforts have been made to chase the elephants back to forest nor to construct a trench in the forest to arrest the elephant menace. The villagers have been living in fear of raids by elephants for the past several days.

Forest officer Manoj Kumar said, “The work on trench has been taken up till Heggala. The work on trench from Heggala to Chelavara has been pending. The forest guards would be deployed from Monday to provide security to the villagers.” The deceased is survived by his wife, daughter and a son.
DH News Service