Man escapes by a whisker in elephant attack in Kerala's Idukki

The Kerala Forest department has constituted a task force led by Dr Arun Zakariah to dart the elephant and rehabilitate it following protests by farmers and shopkeepers

An estate canteen supervisor at Panniyar in the Idukki district of Kerala escaped by a whisker in a wild elephant attack that took place late on Saturday.

The wild elephant nicknamed 'Arikomban' by the forest department has the habit of intruding into Santhanpara and adjacent areas of the Idukki district, damaging shops - especially ration shops and eating rice therein. Rice in Malayalam is called 'Ari' and hence the animal is nicknamed 'Ari Komban'.

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Forest officials told IANS that the supervisor of the Panniyar estate canteen in Idukki was sleeping inside when the elephant broke open the canteen door in search of food. On seeing the animal, the supervisor, Edwin, ran away from the spot but the elephant followed him.

Edwin, according to forest officials, ran for his life and entered a small lane through which the elephant could not pass and thus escaped the wild tusker.

The ration shops in the Panniyar and Santhanpara areas were electrically fenced of late following the regular attack of the wild Arikomban.

As the ration shops were electrically fenced, the elephant tried to enter the labour canteen in search of rice and found Edwin.

The Kerala Forest department has already constituted a task force led by Dr Arun Zakariah to dart the elephant and rehabilitate it following protests by farmers and shopkeepers.