Coffee estate worker's death in jumbo attack triggers protest

A labourer was trampled to death by a stray elephant at a coffee estate at Hedadaalu Gudda near Aldur in Chikkamagaluru district on Wednesday.

Meena (32), along with three other workers, was having her breakfast at the estate owned by Raveesh Gowda, when the elephant charged at them. While Meena was trampled to death, three others managed to escape.

This is the second such incident in Aldur region in two months, a daily wager was killed in an elephant attack near Kanchin Kaldurga.

The incident triggered a flash protest with villagers staging a sit-in in front of the coffee estate, condemning the apathy of the forest department in addressing the rising man-elephant conflicts.

The agitators, keeping the body of the deceased worker, insisted that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who was in the district to attend former minister D B Chandre Gowda’s funeral, visit them and assure concrete steps to end elephant menace. Mudigere MLA Nayana Motamma too joined the protest.

The protesting villagers relented after additional DC Narayanareddy Kanakareddy presented a cheque for Rs 15 lakh as compensation to kin of the deceased and assured them of launching operation to shift elephants to forest in two days.