Lone tusker tramples elderly man to death, injures 2 others

Coimbatore: A 65-year-old man was killed and two others were seriously injured after a lone tusker attacked a group of pilgrims at Mullankadu near the foothills of Poondi on Sunday morning.
Police identified the deceased as N Aruchamy and the injured as R Duraisamy, 64, and M Sivandhandam, 40, of Poorandampalayam village located near Senjerimalai on the outskirts of the city. The villagers were celebrating Madurai Veeran temple festival. Nine people from the village had left for Poondi on Saturday to collect water from Noyyal river for a temple ritual.

“They offered prayers at Vellingiriandavar temple at Poondi on Saturday night and later visited Veerakaliamman temple inside the reserve forest. They collected water from Noyyal and were returning to the foothills when the tusker attacked them around 5am, Sunday. While others managed to escape, the elephant trampled Aruchamy to death and attacked Duraisamy and Sivandhandam. Others in the group reached Mullankadu forest check post and informed forest guards about the elephant attack,” a police officer said.

Department staff sent the body to the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) for postmortem. The injured people are undergoing treatment at CMCH. Sivandhandam is in critical condition, hospital sources said.