Coimbatore: A wild elephant trampled a 70-year-old woman to death at Vellapathi section of Boluvampatti forest range in Coimbatore forest division.
The deceased was identified as S Maruthammal of Sarkar Porathi tribal settlement near Chadivayal. She had gone missing two days ago.
Boluvampatti forest guard Marimuthu, forest watcher Thilaksaran and two anti-poaching watchers found the body near the Sarkar Porathi bus stop inside the Boluvampatti block-II reserve forest on Thursday. The personnel also found footprints of an elephant nearby.
“Maruthammal had left for Chadivayal on Tuesday to get old age pension. When she failed to return, her neighbours thought that she might have gone to her daughter Vijaya’s house at Alandurai,” a forest department official said.
The body was handed over to the family on Thursday evening after postmortem was conducted at the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH).
The department gave Rs 50,000 as first instalment of compensation to the family. The remaining Rs 3.5 lakh will be given soon, the official said.
The officials cautioned inmates of the settlement not to venture out alone as several elephants were spotted in the area.