Erode: A farmer was killed after a wild elephant attacked and trampled him near the Germalam forest reserve in the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR), during the early hours of Monday.The deceased has been identified as K Mathewaswamy, 65, of Kadupasuvanmalam village. He owned a piece of agriculture land near the forest boundary and was guarding his crops at night when the incident took place.“He was guarding harvested sorghum stacked in the land behind his house, when a lone elephant attacked and trampled him to death when he attempted to chase it,” said a forest official from Germalam forest range. Forest officials recovered Mathewaswamy’s body and sent it to the Sathyamangalam Government Hospital for a postmortem. A case has been registered and further investigation is on.Meanwhile, locals pointed out that herds of elephants live in the Germalam forest reserve and repeatedly enter agricultural fields in search of food and water and end up destroying crops. They urged the forest officials to chase the elephants deep into the forest to avoid man animal conflicts.
