Two injured in attack by wild elephants in Nilgiris

One of the victims, Subramaniam (82), was on his way by foot to attend a ceremony around 6 am, when a wild elephant came his way and attacked him, sources said.

According to a Forest department staff, Subramaniam was critically injured by the tusker on his hip and thighs. The incident happened between Nambikunnu and Muthukulikum. On hearing his screams, the villagers rushed to the spot and chased away the wild elephant.

As vehicles could not reach the spot with the narrow path turning slushy from the rains, the villagers carried Subramaniam for nearly two kilometres till Muthukulikum. From there, the elderly man was taken in an ambulance to Gudalur Government Hospital (GH), and later shifted to Kozhikode GH for further treatment.

In another incident, J Karthikeyan (21) from Devala in Gudalur taluk and working as a daily wager in Kerala, was heading to the bazaar around 5 am when he came under the attack of a wild elephant. The villagers then rescued him after chasing the jumbo away.

As the ambulance called for couldn’t come, Forest department staff took him in their vehicle to Gudalur GH, from where he was later taken to a private hospital in Kerala.

The villagers demanded the ambulances in Gudalur GH to be kept functional as the process to shift the victim to hospital was delayed by over an hour due to the temporary lack of the facility.

Irate villagers claimed that Vinayagan, a crop-raiding tusker which was translocated from Coimbatore to Mudumalai, has been involved in the conflicts.

The Forest department could not keep track of the elephant as the radio collar fixed on its neck has fallen off.

The locals urged the Forest department to capture the wild jumbo and keep it in their custody at the elephant camp.