An earthmover was pressed into service on Thursday to chase away an aggressive wild elephant that had stayed put in a forest area near Arepalayam on Sathy hills for about 20 hours after killing a tribal woman who had reportedly gone there to gather firewood.
Four others who had accompanied the victim identified as Jadechi (55) had managed to escape and alerted the villagers.
According to the escaped women, the elephant had emerged out of a bamboo thicket all of a sudden.
After their prolonged attempts to chase away the elephant failed on Wednesday, and because of fall of darkness, the villagers had to return. Even on Thursday, the elephant reportedly did not relent for a long duration when the villagers tried to chase it with the help of Forest Departement personnel.
Subsequently, an earth-mover was brought in to force the elephant to retreat into the forest.
After making sure that the elephant had gone away, the villagers took away the corpse. The body was handed over to relatives after conduct of a post-mortem examination at Sathyamangalam Government Hospital.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/