Venturing too close to a herd of elephants proved costly for a journalist who was trampled to death by an elephant on the city outskirts on Sunday. The incident occurred outside Hoskote, where for the first time a herd of elephants had strayed from the neighbouring forests.
The same herd is now responsible for deaths of three people in the last four days. The first three deaths were reported in Bangarpet and Malur on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday morning, the herd of 22 elephants was sighted outside Hoskote and started drawing a large number of crowds.
Manjunath (23), who worked as a stringer for a Kannada daily, had gone to take photographs of the herd when he was killed. One of the elephants charged towards Manjunath and slammed its trunk against his chest. Forest and police department officials rushed to the spot and drove away the elephant, but by then, Manjunath was dead.
Forest officials said the media personnel and local people had been advised not to go near the herd, which had taken shelter near Horahalli lake. But Manjunath and his friend Ravi walked away from the police and forest officials to get close to the elephants. A tusker from the herd got agitated and started chasing Manjunath and his friend. Ravi managed to escape, while Manjunath hit a tree and fell down. The tusker rushed in and hit Manjunath with its trunk, even as villagers started shouting for help.
Forest officials said that mismanagement of the crowd and bamboo groves where the elephants had taken shelter hampered their operation to drive away the herd. “If the public had cooperated with the forest us, we would have driven back the elephants to Malur, where they came from. Over the last few years, a herd of elephants often travels through Kolar and reach Kuppam in Andra Pradesh. But this is the firs time it has attacked people. That could be because of two young calves in the herd. We have requested villagers to stay away from the herd,” a forest official said.