Suddenly, she got up from bed and opened the door and found the elephant in front of her house.
The elephant reportedly roamed in the area for about 15 minutes before it was chased away to the forest.
The deceased was identified as Eswari, 53, wife of Chellaiah of Sirukunda lower division estate quarters at Valprai. She used to work in the tea estate. At the time of incident she was alone at her house as her husband was admitted to the Valparai government hospital. The couple has a son, who is married and settled in Coimbatore city.
Subsequently, everyone went to bed. When Eswari didn’t come out of her house late in the morning, her neighbours grew suspicious and knocked on the front door of the house which was locked from inside. When there was no response, they broke open the door and found her dead.
Immediately, they alerted the Valparai police, who reached the spot and sent body to the government hospital. After postmortem, the body was handed over to her relatives. The officials claimed that the cause of death was cardiac arrest.
Valparai forest ranger RG Sekar and team, meanwhile, visited the house of the deceased. The Valparai municipal corporation councillor, Selvam, demanded that the forest department should give 3 lakh as solatium to the family of the deceased.