Wild Elephant Breaks Into House, Kills Woman, Granddaughter In Coimbatore

Coimbatore: A 55-year-old woman and her three-year-old granddaughter were killed after a wild elephant broke into their house and attacked them near Valparai town of Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore district in the early hours on Monday. The forest department is conducting a thorough investigation into the incident.

According to officials, the elephant had entered Water Pal Oomaiyandi Mudaku residential area near Valparai at around 3 am. Asala (55) was sleeping with her granddaughter Hemashree when the elephant broke into the house through the main door. Both of them were attacked by the elephant and died on the spot.

On information, forest department personnel reached the spot, recovered the two bodies and sent those to the Valparai Government Hospital for postmortem. Personnel of the forest department are currently engaged in driving away the herd of elephants that has been camping in the area.

Officials said wild elephants that leave the forest and often enter residential areas in search of food. They damage houses and agricultural fields, break into ration shops and attack people. The movement of wild elephants has increased in the tea estates and residential areas of Valparai and its surrounding areas in Coimbatore district.

The incident has triggered fear among residents. The forest department has launched various measures to drive away the herds of wild elephants roaming in residential areas and to prevent them from entering residential areas.

A preliminary investigation conducted by the forest department has revealed that the elephant involved in the incident had earlier fatally attacked a German tourist while he was riding a motorbike in the Waterpal area a few months ago.

Pollachi MP Eswarasamy said, "A decision is being taken to capture the lone wild elephant that has been rampaging in the Valparai area and released elsewhere."

Notably, earlier, the forest department had deployed three kumki elephants (trained tuskers), named Chinnathambi, Arisi Raja and Narasimhan from Kozhikamuthi elephant breeding camp near Topslip under the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, to drive away wild elephants that were threatening residents in the Thondamuthur area of ​​Coimbatore.

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