An 18-year-old youth, Nagaraju, was seriously injured when he tried to take a selfie with a herd of wild elephants at Gunjarlapalle village of Santhipuram mandal of Kuppam Assembly constituency on Thursday afternoon.
According to information, seven elephants were moving in the fields between Sivunikuppam and Gunjarlapalle villages of the mandal since Wednesday midnight, leading to a commotion among villagers in view of the herd’s proximity to human habitations.
The youth, wielding his mobile phone, slowly moved closer to the herd and tried a selfie with the pachyderms. All of a sudden, the herd started charging at the youth, and this led to a frenzied retreat of the curious crowds. While running for his life, the youth had fallen down and was reportedly attacked by one of the jumbos in the herd. It was said that the tusker had lifted him up and threw him away. Some among the crowds could rescue the injured youth and rushed him to the PES Medical College at Kuppam. His condition is said to be serious.
However, a forest official said that going by the condition of the youth with no external injures, it was possible that he got injured in the stampede of the crowd, while running away from the wild herd.