Forest Department officials confirmed that all three human deaths in O’Valley in Gudalur over the last two months were caused by three different elephants, and not by a single tusker, as alleged by local residents.
The investigation follows the recent death of a man in the region a few days ago, and after two deaths during the end of May of this year. “Local residents are demanding that the Forest Department capture the tusker known as OVT-1, alleging that this elephant is responsible for all three deaths,” said a top official who spoke to The Hindu.
“Our investigation has revealed that OVT-1 might have been responsible in only one of the three incidents, while the other two are most likely to be two completely different elephants,” said D. Venkatesh, Conservator of Forests (Nilgiris).
