Wild elephant kills morning walker in Kerala

A sixty-year-old man was killed in an attack by a wild elephant in Palakkad district, triggering protests by residents, who sought governmental intervention to avert man-animal conflicts.

The deceased, Sivaraman, was a resident of Dhoni, in the district’s suburbs. He was killed on Friday morning, when he was out for his walk. Local people, including ruling CPM workers, staged a protest in front of the divisional forest office, alleging that effective steps were not being taken despite the persisting wild elephant threat in the region.

The authorities later assured measures like solar fencing and due compensation to the victim's family.

With the reduction in forest land, many parts of Kerala face similar man-animal conflicts.