Early this morning, a wild elephant trampled and killed four people in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore. The police reported that the elephant managed to enter a house in Ganesapuram and killed a 12 year old girl and another in their sleep.
The elephant then got out and went towards two women who were relieving themselves in the open field. The elephant then trampled and killed them. Two were injured as well in the incident and were rushed to private hospitals in Coimbatore.
Forest officials have decided to tranquilize the elephant. They have also decided to bring in two trained Kumki elephants, Kumki elephants have been trained to help in taming wild elephants. If the Kumki elephants are unsuccessful in training the elephant they lead them away from human settlements.
One of the main reasons for elephants to stray into human settlements is when there’s a drought in the area. But Rama Subramaniam, district Forest Officer said, “We had good rains in the areas last week so this can’t be drought induced. We believe the elephant has gone astray.”
The incident took place two days after two anti poaching watchers tried to send away an elephant that strayed into a village and were injured, in Coimbatore’s Kuniyamuthur area.
The forest department members tried to scare the animal away with crackers. This scared the 25 year old animal onto the Palakkad Highway and disrupted traffic. From there it went towards the members of the forest department, injuring two while the other four barely escaped.
Environmentalists have said a large area outside the forest was originally an elephant corridor. Now, due to human encroachment, the elephants are repeatedly clashing with humans. Large animals like elephants can easily injure humans without even intending to. They are sensitive animals that easily get scared and loud noises can easily send them on a rampage.
