Amid the rise in deaths due to man-animal conflicts, the Catholic Congress, an outfit of the Syro-Malabar church, on Tuesday demanded resignation of forest minister AK Saseendran for not being able to stop such incidents.
“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. If adequate fencing was done in Kuttampuzha, this death would not have occurred,” a priest of the Catholic Congress said.
This comes after a 40-year-old man was trampled to death by a wild elephant near Kothamangalam in Ernakulam district late Monday night triggering protests by locals.
The deceased was identified as Eldhose Kodiyatt, a native of Knachary in Kuttampuzha panchayat, an area close to deep forests home to elephants and other wild animals as part of the Kothamangalam forest division.
According to the police and locals, Eldhose, a casual worker, was walking home after deboarding the 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. The mutilated remains of the 40-year-old were found by a passerby who informed the forest and police officials.
{{/usCountry}}According to the police and locals, Eldhose, a casual worker, was walking home after deboarding the 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. The mutilated remains of the 40-year-old were found by a passerby who informed the forest and police officials.
{{/usCountry}}Maneesh, a neighbour of Eldhose who was among the first persons to arrive at the spot and find 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.”
The protesters had initially refused to hand over the remains for autopsy. Finally, the locals dispersed after district collector NSK Umesh 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 compensation of ₹10 lakh to Eldhose’ family of his elderly parents and a sister.
On the directions of Saseendran, forest officials began efforts on Monday to dig trenches and install solar fences around the areas demarcating the panchayat and the reserve forest.
He said: “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,” he said.
On Tuesday evening, after autopsy at the Kalamassery Government Medical College, Eldhose’ remains were interred at the local cemetery in Kuttampuzha.
In 2023-24, 17 people lost their lives in wild elephant attacks in the state. There were 27 deaths in 2022-23 and 35 deaths in 2021-22.