© GettyCharging elephant
M Sarasu, 65, a resident of Anaikatty village in the range, went to the forest around 1pm to collect fodder for cattle, a forest official said. Sarasu, who was accompanied by her son Balan, 42, and her sister Mathi, 55, encountered an elephant and its calf when she was some 3km away from her home.
"The elephant charged at them. While Balan and Mathi managed to escape, Sarasu was attacked by the elephant. She died on the spot," said L C S Srikanth, deputy director, MTR-buffer zone.
Police retrieved the body and sent it to the Ooty government hospital. The postmortem will be conducted on Wednesday as the body reached the hospital late in the evening.
In the meantime, an interim relief of Rs 50, 000 was handed over to the family of the victim by the forest department.
This is the fifth death reported due to elephant attack in the Nilgiris in the past one week.
Meanwhile, the forest department has brought three kumkis from the Theppakadu elephant camp to chase away the rogue elephant that killed three people in Pandalur division.
"The kumkis were stationed near Cherambadi to help us in tackling the elephant. A team was deputed to chase away the elephant into deep forest as soon as possible," said Guru Swamy Baddal, district forest officer, Nilgiris division, who is also in charge of the Gudalur division.
On December 12, the rogue elephant killed a 65-year-old man at Kannampalli near Cherambadi. The next day, it killed a father-son duo at Kolapalli near Cherambadi.
If they were aware above and before men of that tsunami, what else might they be aware of? How about an impending meteorite strike?
There are simply too many of these events happening.
R.C.