Two forest staff injured in elephant attack in Coimbatore

Two anti-poaching watchers, who attempted to drive away a wild elephant, were allegedly attacked by it in Kuniyamuthur area here, police said today.
The incident occurred last night when a six-member forest department team tried to chase away the elephant which had strayed into a human habitat from Madukkarai forest area, they said.
As the team used crackers to scare the pachyderm, it ran towards Palakkad Highway via B K Pudur in Kuniyauthur, disrupting traffic for a while.
The 25-year-old elephant then came running towards the team and gored Vijayakumar and Karthikeyan.
The duo were taken to a private hospital, from where Vijayakumar was discharged this afternoon, forest department sources said.

Karthikeyan, who sustained multiple injuries on his right shoulder and rib is still taking treatment, they said.
The elephant had attacked one person last week and a special team was formed to monitor the movement of the animal, they added.