Wild jumbos enter railway ticket counter, create scare

PALLAKAD: The on-going man-animal conflict in different parts of the district took a serious turn on the early hours of Sunday. Two wild tuskers entered the Palakkad Junction railway station's ticket booking counter resulting in the passengers waiting at the counter to run helter skelter for their lives.
A person named Naufal (44) was injured in the attack by the elephants.He was first admitted to the district hospital and then to a hospital at Coimbatore as his condition worsened. The two elephants attacked him while he was shutting down his shop at midnight. The jumbos also partially damaged his shop, said nearby shop owners.
The elephants have also damaged the compound wall of the MEMU shed at the station.
Palakkad railway division officials said, "Two wild elephants were sighted near the railway station yard and they damaged the walls of the MEMU shed. The elephants were shooed away by railway protection force, police and forest department officials."
The local residents said that the two elephants were spotted at the Akkarakkad coconut garden near the railway station on Saturday evening. Later, they entered the station premises when the forest officials tried to scare them away.
Though the RPF, forest and police officials burst crackers and fire balls to scare away the elephants they remained in the station premises for hours together.
On Thursday one person was killed by wild elephants at Kottekkad in Malampuzha. The wild elephants are on rampage in the Kottekkad-Malampuzha areas for the past many days.
Meanwhile, district collector P Marykutty said here on Sunday that steps will be taken to save the people of Malampuzha and other areas from attacks.
The forest department was directed to take urgent steps to stop wild elephants from entering in human settlements, she said.