A 50-year-old man died after being attacked by an elephant in Pandalur in Gudalur forest division on Saturday evening.
The mortal remains of Ramamurthy, resident of Pandalur, was found on Sunday morning. Forest department officials said he had ventured into a patch of reserve forest to gather firewood for his home.
When he failed to return on Saturday evening, his family notified the forest department and Devala police, who launched a search.
Around 700 meters within a patch of reserve forest, forest department staff found Ramamurthy’s body. He had seemingly suffered serious injuries after being attacked by a herd of elephants. The forest department staff noticed elephant footprints near the body of the deceased.
They also spotted a herd of elephants nearby, and believe that Ramamoorthy might have been attacked when he ventured too close to the herd.
This is the second death caused by negative human-elephant interactions in Gudalur within the span of a week. Forest department officials said that despite warnings to local residents to not trespass into forested areas to collect firewood, the warnings often go unheeded, leading to negative human-elephant interactions.
They added that compensation would be given to the next of kin of the deceased.
