A male tusker that roams around the villages located in the forest boundaries in Denkanikottai of Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district killed two women in two separate events on Sunday, February 18. The anguished residents of Anniyalam, Dasarapalli, and Dhavakkarai villages staged a protest in various locations to get assurance of no more human-animal negative interactions in their residential areas and urged the forest department to translocate the elephant to the deep forests.
Vasanthamma (37), an agri labourer, from Anniyalam village went to work on the field on Sunday morning where she was encountered by a wild elephant, which chased her. She was captured and thrown by the elephant. She died on the spot. Denkanikottai Range forest officials and police personnel arrived at the spot, recovered her body, and sent it to Denkanikottai Government Hospital. A section of Anniyalam residents staged a sit-in protest at the hospital premises while another section of residents picketed at the Denkanikottai Forest Range checkpost.
Meanwhile, the elephant further roamed into the neighbouring village Dasarapalli and attacked Aswathamma. The elephant trampled her to death. The Dasarapalli residents' placed her body on the Thally road and demanded immediate action. The police and forest department held discussions with residents. It is to be noted that a couple of days ago, the residents alerted the forest officials about the single tusker. The tusker was out of the Noganur forest fringe areas and started to roam around the villages near Therpettai residential area. The forest department chased the tusker into the forest.
The residents who protest at the various locations demand the forest department to chase the elephant into the deep forest or translocate the elephant to another forest range. As per reports, they also demanded the government to provide government jobs to one of the next kin of the deceased.
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