Tusker crushes four people to death in Coimbatore

The elephant was sent back into the forest on Thursday after it attacked two anti-poaching guards.

Coimbatore, June 2: 12-year-old, two women and another person were crushed to death by an elephant which strayed into Ganeshapuram and Vellalore in Coimbatore during the wee hours of Friday.

The deceased were identified as Gayatri (12), daughter of Vijayakumar of Ganeshapuram, P Palanisamy (73) of Kambar Street at Vellalore, B Nagarathinam (50), and her friend M Jothimani (68) at Vellalore.

According to sources, the elephant came out of the forest on Wednesday night and attacked two anti-poaching guards near BK Pudur. After the attack, the tusker was sent back into the forest in the wee hours of Thursday by the forest officials. Later, two special teams were deployed to monitor the elephant in Madukkarai Forest on Thursday night.

The elephant, however, came out of the forest and entered the residential area in Ganeshapuram near Podanur in the early hours of Friday. The Tusker is believed to be aged between 20-25 years old.

The elephant attacked Gayatri and her father Vijaykumar when they were sleeping in the front yard of their house. During the attack, Gayatri reportedly died on the spot while her father sustained minor injuries. The incident took place around 3:15 am.

The Tusker then moved to Vellalore and attacked a farmer identified as Palanisamy and killed him on spot. Later it attacked Nagarathinam and Jothimani who also died on the spot.

The forest officials planned to tranquilise the tusker after they attempt to send it back into the forest. The tusker continued to roam in the residential area.

More than 100 police personnel were deployed in the area.

Based on the information, TN Hariharan, the Coimbatore district collector and city police commissioner A Amalraj reached the spot and took stock of the situation.

Later, I Anwardeen, the chief conservator of forest said that four kumkis were being taken to the spot.

OneIndia News