Coimbatore: A seven-year-old tribal girl was trampled by an elephant in Pollachi, Tamil Nadu. According to sources, while the girl and her mother were entering their house, they found the elephant stealing rice bags kept in their home. When the duo lit a torch and raised it towards the elephant, the startled creature made a run for it and accidentally trampled the girl on the way out.

The elephant, while escaping had destroyed the hut partially.
 The victim, M Ranjani and her mother Chithra had been staying at Patta lands on the borders of Navamalai forest, Tamil Nadu. 

The seven-year-old was immediately rushed to the Kottur government hospital by neighbours, but succumbed to injuries.

While herds of elephants have been known to move from the forest to nearby sources in search of food and water, incidents of attack have been very rare at Navamalai. The forest department said that the department will deploy more anti-poaching watchers near Navamalai to prevent wild elephants from entering tribal settlements. 

An initial compensation of Rs 50,000 has been handed over to the girl’s father Raju alias Murugan, an anti-poaching watcher working in the Pollachi forest range of Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR).

Similarly, an elephant brought for a festival at Kottappadi Chembalakulangara temple, Guruvayur, in Kerala, ran amok killing two people. The elephant named Thechikottukavu Ramachandran was taken to a house warming function near Kottappadi. When people started bursting crackers, the elephant began to run.

The elephant ran into a group of people, who were standing near the house, trampling two of them to death. The house owner’s friend, Babu aka Narayanan Patteri (66) and Kozhikode native Arakkal Gangadhran (60) have been identified as the deceased.