Massive protests after jumbo kills man in Wayanad, govt announces Rs 10 lakh aid

The rogue elephant was captured in Karnataka’s Hassan in November last year and radio-collared before being released in the wild bordering Wayanad.

Thousands of people poured into the streets of Mananthavady, alleging inaction against forest and revenue officials. Demanding that the victim’s family be given a compensation of Rs 50 lakh, they held a protest march in the city with the body for six hours and demanded that the elephant be shot.

District Collector Renu Raj announced that an interim relief of Rs 10 lakh would be given to Ajeesh’s family and his widow would be given a government job, following which the body was handed over for post-mortem. Raj also said steps would be taken to write off his debts and the government would bear the cost of the children’s education. Locals said the elephant was spotted in the region Friday itself, but the forest officials did not alert them.

Admitting there was delay in tracking the elephant due to signal disruption from radio-collar, Forest Minister A K Saseendran told media persons directions to tranquillise the elephant have been issued.

Opposition leader V D Satheesan demanded Saseendran’s resignation and blamed the forest department. “A situation has reached in Wayanad where elephants storm into houses to kill people. When the issue of tiger threat was raised in the Assembly by Congress, the Minister resorted to insulting the legislator,” he said.

Expressing shock, Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi said, “We have repeatedly demanded for intervention to mitigate such attacks in Wayanad, particularly to protect our farmers. However, the lack of a comprehensive action plan to tackle this issue has only aggravated the conflict. I urge the central and state governments to take decisive steps and put in place a response mechanism that can protect both our communities and the wildlife of the region.” – With PTI inputs