Anantapur: In separate incidents, two labourers including a woman were trampled to death by wild elephants at Mallanur and Sappanikunta in Kuppam mandal of Chittoor district on Friday.
The wild elephants went on the rampage closer to human habitations from Tamil Nadu even after the forest department was alerted.
According to reports, 42-year-old woman Usha, was attacked by two elephants while she was on her way to the Mallanur railway station to catch a train to a nearby city for work. She died on the spot.
In the other incident, farmer Shivalingam, 45, was trampled to death by a jumbo while he was returning home from the fields on the outskirts of Sappanikunta village, adjacent to Mallanur in Kuppam mandal.
The incidents terrified the villagers. The animals entered the Kuppam area of AP from the Tamil Nadu borders, after they killed a farmer there a week ago. The Tamil Nadu forest department personnel drove the elephants away towards Andhra Pradesh.
Even as the AP forest officials along with Chittoor revenue staff were alerted by the locals, the two incidents could not be averted. This caused panic among the people of the surrounding Kuppam.
Some 15 elephants were already moving around the forest area and destroying the crops in recent days. Two more wild elephants entered the region from TN after they killed a farmer in Krishnagiri area of TN last week. Farmer Perumal was trying to send back the elephants from the fields.
DRO Krishna Prasad had cautioned the people of the area not to go to the agriculture fields as the wild elephants were on the prowl.
