Hassan: 14-year-old boy trampled to death by elephant

Hassan: a 14 year old boy was attacked and killed by an elephant at Kodagattavalli in Alur taluk on Sunday. This incident has caused increased demand to capture all the elephants that are roaming in Alur and Sakleshpur taluks.

The deceased has been identified as Bharath, a class 8 student. He resided at Tanneeruhalla in Hassan and had been to his grandmother’s place to celebrate Sankranti. That is where he encountered the elephant. According to the villagers, the elephant carried Bharath by his trunk and later crushed him to death. Bharath’s grandmother is grief-stricken.

There was a huge protest by the villagers against the government for not taking any action against these incidences. The villagers kept Bharath’s body and staged a protest. The spot was visited by Alur-Sakleshpur MLA H.K. Kumaraswamy and consoled the villagers. He said that he has been putting pressure on the government to capture these elephants so that the villagers can live in peace but there has been no proper response from the state government.

This incident is the third death by elephant attack in the last two months and there have been more than 50 deaths due to elephant attacks in Alur and Sakleshpur taluks since 2001.

The family of the deceased was visited by Deputy Conservator of Forests M.L. Manjunath and other officers and they promised the villagers to soon begin the operation to capture the elephants in the region. A compensation of Rs.5 lakh will be given to Bharath’s family.