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40-year-old man trampled to death by wild elephant in Kerala; Locals protest
Forest officials have begun efforts to dig trenches and install solar fences around the areas demarcating the panchayat and the reserve fores
A wild elephant trampled a 40-year-old man to death near Kothamangalam in Kerala’s Ernakulam district on Monday night, triggering protests by locals who demanded permanent solutions to end the human-animal conflict in the area.
The victim was identified as Eldhose Kodiyatt, a native of Knachary in Kuttampuzha panchayat, an area close to deep forests, part of the Kothamangalam forest division and home to elephants and other wild animals.
According to the police and locals, Kodiyatt, a casual worker, was walking towards his home after deboarding a bus at Urulanthanni when the wild tusker attacked him reportedly without provocation around 9 pm Monday.
Locals said the one-kilometre stretch from the bus stop to Eldhose’ home had streetlights, but none of them were working. His mutilated remains were found by a passerby who informed the forest and police officials.
Maneesh, a neighbour of Eldhose who was among the first persons to arrive at the spot and found his remains, told reporters, “It was a really horrifying sight. His body was torn into pieces. I got scared but managed to inform the forest officials and other locals. Eldhose perhaps didn’t know that the elephant was in the area and ran into the animal in the dark.”
Irate locals protested for hours and refused to hand over the remains for autopsy. They were forced to disperse after district collector NSK Umesh reached the spot and assured them of timely compensation to the victim’s family as well as immediate solutions to safeguard their lives.
The district administration on Monday handed over a compensation of ₹10 lakh to Eldhose’ family consisting of his elderly parents and a sister.
On the directions of forest minister AK Saseendran, forest officials have begun efforts to dig trenches and install solar fences around the areas demarcating the panchayat and the reserve forest.
“The incident is extremely unfortunate and heartbreaking. Naturally, there was an expression of anger on the part of the public there. The anger dissipated after the district collector went there and assured them that the government would take all the steps to protect their lives from elephant attacks. We have decided to fix the streetlights on the road where the incident took place, install solar hanging fences wherever they have been broken and dig trenches to prevent elephants from penetrating into residential areas,” Saseendran said.
On Tuesday evening, after autopsy at the Kalamassery Government Medical College, Eldhose’ remains were interred at the local cemetery in Kuttampuzha.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Congress, an outfit of the Syro-Malabar church, demanded the forest minister’s resignation for not being able to prevent deaths due to man-animal conflict.
“Such incidents are repeating because authorities are not serious about the lives of poor people living along the fringes of forests in the state. We are not against forests or wildlife, but people living close to forests must be able to lead their lives in peace. Has there been adequate fencing in Kuttampuzha, this death would not have occurred,” a priest of the outfit said.
In 2023-24, 17 people lost their lives in wild elephant attacks in the state. There were 27 such deaths in 2022-23 and 35 in 2021-22.
