Tribal boy trampled to death by elephant

A 12-year-old tribal boy was trampled to death by a wild elephant at Ponkuzhy under the Sulthan Bathery forest range of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary on Wednesday. The deceased was identified as Mahesh, son of Sundaran of Puliyaram tribal hamlet, near Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu.

Mahesh, a Class 5 student of Nagampally government school at Mudumalai, reached the hamlet a few days ago to spend his summer vacation with the relatives. Forest Department sources said the tusker attacked the boy on a forest path around 7 a.m. while he was returning to his relative’s house at Ponkuzhi along with three other boys after a bath in the Nugu river. The boy died on the spot and the three others escaped without being attacked, the sources said.

The jumbo has been creating panic among villagers of the Vadakkanad area for many months and a group of women of the village have been staging a hunger fast in front of the office of the wildlife warden for 10 days seeking protection to their life and property from recurring attacks by wild animals.

Meanwhile, a group of CPI(M) activists led by party district secretary P. Gagarin detained wildlife warden N.T. Sajan at his office seeking protection from wildlife attacks, especially from the tusker which had reportedly attacked a farmer last week.

Simultaneously, a group of UDF activists led by I.C. Balakrishnan, MLA, blocked vehicular traffic on the Sulthan Bathery-Pulppally State Highway in front of the office of the warden alleging laxity on the part of the Forest Department in capturing the tusker.

They also demanded that the Chief Wildlife Warden issue an order to translocate the tusker. An order was issued in the evening to translocate the animal after tranquillising it.