ERODE: A 70-year-old woman was trampled to death by a rogue elephant in the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve here on Saturday. According to police, the elephant was in search of water and food and entered into the Neithalapuram forest area under the Thalavadi Forest Range in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) today morning.

The elephant went into some sugarcane fields causing damage to the standing crops and then entered the Neithalapuram village.

When the victim, 70-year-old woman Kalamma came out from her house, the rogue elephant attacked her and trampled her to death on the spot, police officials said.

On hearing the woman’s cry, the alarmed neighbours scared the elephant away. The Thalavadi police rushed to the spot, removed the body and sent it to the Government Hospital, Thalavadi.

People of the area gathered at the hospital and urged the forest department to dig deep trenches around the fertile private lands to save the crop and human life from wild animals, especially elephants. The villagers told the police that this is the third incident and totally three people have been killed by elephants in two months in the area.