Tribal woman killed in elephant attack near Kotagiri in Nilgiris

NILGIRIS: A 60-year-old woman died after she was attacked by a wild elephant near her house at Vellarikombai, a tribal settlement near Kotagiri on Tuesday evening. The deceased has been identified as S Janaki.

A team led by Kotagiri forest range officer S Selvaraj and revenue department officials visited the spot.

Selvaraj said Janaki was returning to her house along with three women when the elephant attacked her. While the three women managed to escape, the animal pushed Janaki down and left the spot.

“Based on the women’s information, we visited the spot. The elephant was attracted by jackfruits grown in the area. We have been advising locals to remove jackfruits from trees that are close to overhead power lines. Since there are no overhead lines, they have been growing trees for their livelihood,” he explained. Seven families staying at Vellarikombai have to walk more than 3 km from the bus stand. They are vulnerable to wild animal attacks.

However, the incident happened unfortunately,” Selvaraj added. Later in the day, forest staff chased away the elephant that attacked Janaki far away from the habitation.

On Wednesday, based on the direction of Nilgiris District Forest Officer S Gowtham, Selvaraj and his team handed over an initial solatium of `50,000 to Janaki’s son. Janaki’s body was sent to Kotagiri hospital for postmortem.