Elephant tramples farmer to death in Tamil Nadu

DHARMAPURI: A wild elephant trampled a farmer to death near Palacode in the Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu in the early hours of Monday.

The deceased has been identified as T Duraisamy, 70, of Sengodapatty village.

Duraisamy owned a piece of land where he cultivated groundnuts. He went to his field around 3am to scare away wild boars that had invaded and damaged his crops.

Suddenly, a solitary elephant appeared there and trampled him to death, according to S Balasundaram, an inspector at the Palacode police station.

The victim's family learned of his death around 8am and gathered on the Dharmapuri-Palacode State Highway demanding that authorities drive the elephant back into the forest.

Police engaged in discussions with the protesters and promised prompt action following which the villagers agreed to disperse. The road blockade lasted 15 minutes.

The body was sent to Government Hospital in Palacode for postmortem. A case was registered.