Elderly woman trampled to death by wild elephant near Sholayar dam

COIMBATORE: An elderly woman was trampled to death by a wild elephant near Sholayar dam in the early hours of Thursday. The deceased woman has been identified as J Mary, 77, of Left Bank at Sholayar dam near Valparai.

Mary was residing near the dam in a small house. Her neighbour, Theivanai, 76, was staying alone in the same area. Mary used to stay at Theivanai’s house at night since the latter was alone.

Around 1.30am on Thursday, a male wild elephant reached the backyard of the house. The elephant brushed its body against the wall of the house and broke a windowpane. The two women woke up on hearing the noise. They opened the front door as they thought that the elephant would damage the house. They got out of the house and ran in two directions.

Mary ran towards the left side. The elephant followed her and trampled her to death. Theivanai ran towards her right side and fell unconscious. She sustained minor injuries. The elephant did not attack her.

The frontline staff members of the forest department sent the dead body of Mary to the Valparai Govt Hospital for postmortem. Theivanai was admitted to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital.

Manambolly forest range officer K Giritharan handed over an immediate relief of Rs 50,000 to the kin of the deceased. The remaining amount of Rs 9.5 lakh will be handed over to the family soon.

Forest department officials asked the residents not to venture out of their houses if they noticed any wild animal movement. They should alert the forest department to prevent man-animal conflict.

The forest department deployed two special teams in the area.