It was a horrifying sight as the elephants threw Muthusamy up and caught him with their trunks. He was, however, fortunate not to have been trampled by the jumbos which dropped him among the villagers who gathered on hearing his screams.
Muthusamy, a watchman, has been admitted to the government medical college hospital here, police said.
He woke up at 2 am on hearing some noise and was startled to see an elephant eating rice and other eatables in his kitchen.
They ran helter skelter and in the melee one elephant caught hold of Muthusamy with its trunk and hurled him up only to be caught by another jumbo. This continued for a few minutes, police said.
Meanwhile, forest department officials rushed to the spot and managed to drive away the elephants to a nearby forest area.