Chennai

The seriously injured person, identified as Shanu, has been hospitalised in Vythiri and his condition is said to be critical. Sources said that the group entered a thick forest area for consuming alcohol around 12.45 am on Saturday. On seeing an elephant coming towards them, four of them started running while the other two, who were by that time highly inebriated, could not move from the spot. The pachyderm attacked the two youngsters. Shafi, a 19-year-old student, was killed and Shanu seriously injured. 

The Pandalur reserve forest witnessed another incident before dawn on Saturday when two estate workers were attacked by an elephant on their way to work. 

Though the forest officials have repeatedly warned the villagers that they should not move into the forest areas from dusk to dawn, many ignore it, resulting in man-animal conflicts.

“Decades ago, the people who lived near the forest areas knew well and there were no man-animal conflicts. But things have changed a lot and the people living near forest areas nowadays fail to heed the warnings given by forest officials,” said an official from the Gudalur forest division. He also pointed out that in the first incident, the youngsters could have provoked the elephant, after which it might have attacked them.

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