Ooty: A farm hand was killed by a wild elephant in the Cherampadi area in Gudalur limits on the Nilgiris border on Thursday. Sources say that there were 26 cases of man-animal conflict in the Nilgiris in 2018, of which six proved to be fatal. Of the fatal cases, five were due to elephant attacks.
As frost and dry weather has almost become the order of the day in the western parts of the Nilgiris consisting of Gudalur and Pandalur taluks, it is presumed that sources of fodder and water in the woods are drying up. This forces wild animals, especially, the elephant to stray out in search of food and water. After sloth bears menace, the killing of Rajendran (48), a plantation labourer at Cherampadi shows that the man-elephant conflict has begun to emerge in early January itself.
Forest sources said that a wild elephant suddenly appeared out of the nearby bushes, attacked and killed Rajendran who was walking along the footpath in the corner of a tea field in Cherampadi village. Foresters in Gudalur division have formed a team to trace the animal.
