60-year-old man out for a morning walk killed by wild elephant in Palakkad

Sivaraman, a native of Palakkad, had gone as usual for a walk along withseven others at around 5.30 am. On seeing the elephant, all the eight persons ran helter-skelter

PALAKKAD: A 60-year-old man was killed by a wild elephant when he went for a walk in Palakkad’s Dhoni village on Friday.

Sivaraman, a native of Dhoni, had gone as usual for a walk along with seven others at around 5.30 am. On seeing the elephant, all the eight persons ran helter-skelter. Sivaraman entered the paddy fields and the elephant chased him and stamped him to death, according to eye-witnesses. Sivaraman was unable to run through the paddy fields fast enough, they said.

Though the sexagenarian was rushed to the district hospital, his life could not be saved.

Dhoni is an area adjoining the forests but wild elephants are usually seen only during the night. Moreover, on seeing humans, the tuskers usually rush back into the forests. But this time, it was a different story altogether with a tragic end.

Earlier, Kumki or captive elephants were used to chase the wild elephants back to the forests. But these kumki elephants have now been sent back to Wayanad.

Following the death of the man, a hartal was observed by the CPM in the area on Friday demanding that the forest personnel be deployed to prevent such attacks by wild elephants in the area.