The two Central Reserve Police Force personnel, who survived the elephant attack even as their two colleagues were trampled to death on Sunday, had a harrowing time throughout the day.
They did not have any breakfast and even after they were asked to rest, they insisted on continuing their duty.
A senior CRPF official said that the two personnel were suffering from survivor’s guilt about not being able to do anything to save their colleagues.
One CRPF personnel recounted the early morning horror to The Hindu .
“Murthy sir (H. Dakshina Murthy) was using the toilet near the trench, when I heard a loud sound of a wild animal. I first thought that it was a pack of wild boars. But then I clearly saw the head of an elephant emerge out from the trench. I screamed at Murthy sir to alert him. The entire incident happened almost at a lightning speed: the animal emerged from the trench and was just a few feet away from Murthy sir. It picked him up using its trunk and swung him to the ground injuring him,” he said. The elephant then charged at the two jawans who were near the sentry point, swung at a bike, fell a tree and damaged the camp.
Kuttappa Lamani, who was still sleeping in the camp when the elephant attacked, was awake by then and rushed to help Dakshina Murthy with a water bottle.
“As he was giving Murthy sir water, the elephant, which was chasing us, changed its direction, went towards them and trampled them to death. The two were killed immediately. The elephant later went away towards Kanakapura,” the jawan recounted.
“Though we were armed we were instructed not to fire at any wild animals. But the attack was too sudden and it was all over in a matter of few minutes. We did not have any time to either fire or light crackers that we had to chase wild animals away,” another jawan added.
