2 policemen among 5 who got injured in elephant attacks

Coimbatore: Five men, including two policemen engaged in combing operation to curtail the movement of Maoists in the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border, had a narrow escape after wild elephants attacked them at various places on Wednesday night.

In the first incident, a tusker attacked two anti-poaching watchers from Madukkarai, who were trying to chase it away from BK Pudur, a residential area. An anti-poaching watcher, who was injured in the attack, is undergoing treatment at a private hospital.

The tusker, in its 20s, had come out of the reserve forest in Madukkarai forest range on Wednesday night, forest department officials said. “The elephant crossed the busy Palakkad-Coimbatore road near BK Pudur and entered a residential area. Anti-poaching watcher M Karthikeyan from Madukkarai, who tried to chase it away, was attacked by the elephant, which pierced his lungs with its tusks. It then targeted Karthikeyan’s colleague R Vijayakumar, also from Madukkarai. Forest department staff managed to rescue the duo and rushed them to a hospital.

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