Dasara elephant Gajendra kills mahout; wild elephant kills farmer

Mysuru/Hassan, Mar 16: A mahout and a farmer were killed by elephants in two separate incident occurred in Mysuru and Hassan districts.

Gajendra, a fiery-tempered tusker which used to take part in Mysuru Dasara Utsav, on Sunday went berserk and killed its mahout at K Gudi Elephant Camp which falls under under Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve area in Mysuru.

The incident occurred when the victim Ganapathi (50), a resident of Nagalapur in Hunasusu taluk, tried to cool down the flaring tempers of the tuskers Gajendra and Srirama. Gajendra attacked the mahout, who suffered serious injuries and bled to death after a while.

Ganapathi used to work as mahout at the elephant camp for the past two decades. His job was regularised only two years back.

Forest Conservator and Director of BRT S S Lingaraju visited the camp and reviewed the situation. Ramasamudra East police have registered a case and investigations are on.

In a separate incident, a farmer died after one of the two elephants hiding in the bushes held him aloft and hurled him away at Appenahalli village in Channarayapatna taluk on Saturday.

The deceased, Rangaswamy, 46, had gone to the farm reportedly to see the two elephants hiding in the bushes. He walked straight into them. One of the pachyderms pounced on him, held him aloft and hurled him away. Some people rushed to his help and took him to a hospital but he died on the way.

Ravindra K R, Assistant Conservator of Forests, said Rangaswamy should not have ventured so close to see the elephants. “He and some other people had gone to see the elephants. While others ran away, Rangaswamy got trapped and one of the elephants got hold of him,” he told Deccan Herald.

The elephants are said to have entered Hassan from Bannerghatta via Tumakuru district. They were spotted in Belur, Alur and Holenarsipur taluks in the last few days.

Ravindra said the forest staff had been tracking the elephants for the past four days to drive them away. He hoped the elephants would be driven back to the forests shortly. Alerts have been issued in eight surrounding villages through which the elephants are likely to return to the forest.