TUMAKURU: A wild elephant trampled a man to death at Kittaganahalli village near here on Friday.
K T Basavaraju (34), a farmer, along with 12 others was on his way to the fields. They found a herd of four elephants camped nearby and went close. One of the tuskers ran towards them and everybody managed to escape except Basavaraju.
He ran towards the social forests, but the elephant attacked him and trampled him to death, sources said.
The forest department staff were camping at some distance and had no idea about the incident. They came to know only when they spotted a dog with part of a human corpse around 2 pm. Villagers took the officials to task as they failed to check jumbo menace. DCF Amarnath said that the work on trenches and laying of electric fence at Bannerghatta zoological park was underway and once completed, the straying of elephants would be checked. He announced `5 lakh as compensation and handed over a cheque of `2 lakh to the victim’s kin.