Hassan: Tusker lifts boy from house, crushes him

Hassan: A bull elephant, probably in masth (ready to mate), lifted a 15-year-old boy from inside the backyard of his house and crushed him to death at Kodavatavalli village Kenchammanna Hoskote hobli of Alur taluk in Hassan on Sunday.

What’s more, some villagers even saw the boy, identified as Bharat, being carried away by the jumbo, but they were too panic stricken to come to his rescue. A source said, the villagers ran for their lives when they saw the jumbo carrying the boy.Sources said a bull elephant was sighted entering K. Hosakote village around 8.30 am and while passing through the village, it came across Bharat who was in the backyard of his house, probably feeding the cattle.

The tusker raised its trunk over the six-foot compound wall, lifted the boy and carried him on its trunk for about 200 metres before crushing him. 

The villagers found the body with crushed head.Forest officials said they were monitoring a herd close to the village, but were clueless about the killer jumbo and when it entered Kodavatavalli village.

The forest officials are stumped by the rare display of aggression by the jumbo, as it entered into a village, carried a boy from inside a house compound.

“In masth, bull elephants are very aggressive and could be unpredictable,” said a forest official, while DCF Manjunath said the jumbo passed through the centre of the village, while Bharat was inside the house.

Both forest officials and a conservationist say that many elephants have settled in and around Sakleshpur from neighbouring Madikeri and this particular tusker might have had no idea of the route it had strayed to Koduvatavalli.