COIMBATORE: A 56-year-old tribal woman was trampled to death by a wild elephant in Thengumarahada village in The Nilgiris.
The deceased, Lakshmi (56), wife of Balan from Kattabettu in Kotagiri had gone to visit a relative in Kallampalayam in Thengumarahada on Sunday night.
“She got off the bus and was walking when a wild elephant emerged from the dark and attacked her. The woman suffered critical injuries and died on the spot,” said a forest department official.
As she did not turn up, her relatives came in search and found her lying dead with severe injuries on Monday morning.
Soon, the villagers gathered in protest, while demanding the forest department to take concrete measures to prevent the wild elephant from straying out of the forest area.
A joint team of police from Sholurmattam police station, revenue department, and forest department officials held talks with the villagers, who then withdrew their protest.
An initial compensation of Rs 50,000 was given to the kin of the deceased by the forest department. The body of the deceased was then sent for a post-mortem at Sathyamangalam Government Hospital.