Farmer Trampled To Death By Elephant
Villagers looking at the body of Selvaraj, who was trampled to death by an elephant on Thursday. A farmer was found trampled to death by a wild elephants on Thursday morning at Kembanur in Thondamuthur. Following frequent incidents of crop damage by wild boar and elephants, Selvaraj (54) used to stay at his farm in Kembanur to scare away the animals. On Wednesday night around 2.30 a.m., tribals living in a hamlet near Selvaraj’s farm heard some noise. They mistook it to be the usual noises made by Selvaraj to scare away the wild animals. However on Thursday his body was found completely crushed. According to Kembanur K. Kadiravan, a public representative, a herd of nine elephants including a tusker and four calves had been raiding crops for the last few weeks. By examining the marks at the place where Selvaraj’s body was recovered, officials said that the tusker must have trampled the farmer.
South Tashildar, P. Subramanian visited the scene and the Thondamuthur hospital where Selvaraj’s body was brought. Officials said that the Forest Department would immediately give away Rs 25,000 to the farmer’s family and Rs 75,000 would be disbursed as compensation. Farmers in the area urged the Forest Department to consider digging a trench and erecting solar fencing to prevent such incidents of man-animal conflicts in future.
