Jumbos rampage through Mysore, kill one

Mysore city awoke to a jumbo-sized nightmare on Wednesday after two wild elephants, a male and a female, went on a three-hour rampage, trampling a 55-year-old man to death.

Before they were finally caught, the male elephant gored and trampled to death a cow tied to a traffic signpost and injured three persons, including one seriously.

The deceased man Renukaprasad was having tea at a stall on the narrow entrance to Narayana Shastry Road in the city centre when the elephant charged him.

“I heard the beast trumpeting, and started running. I saw Renukaprasad following me. When I looked back a second time, I saw that he had tried to seek shelter in front of a house but the elephant caught hold of him with its trunk and pushed him against a wall. It then repeatedly gored and trampled him till he collapsed,” Balaji, one of the witnesses, said. Blood was seen dripping from the beast’s tusks when it moved away from the body, he added.

After killing Renukaprasad, the elephant killed a cow that was tied to a traffic signpost.

Officials fired tranquilliser darts at the elephants before deploying kumkis (trained elephants) to capture them. The young male elephant was captured at 10.30am while the older cow was caught around 6.30pm on a farm.

It is believed that the elephants might have come from T Narasipur, about 40km from Mysore. The captured elephants will be shifted to Bandipur National Park.