Two elephants ran amok in Palakkad district and another in Pathanamthitta during temple festivals on Sunday. Four persons were injured in Palakkad, while in Pathanamthitta, the elephant damaged two vehicles and uprooted trees.
The pachyderm, Narayanankutty, ran amok at the annual ‘parackezhunnellippu' ceremony of the Puthenkavumala Mahadevar temple, at Nellad, near Vallamkulam, in Pathanamthitta at 1.30 p.m. on Sunday. It was tranquillised and tethered after three hours by an Elephant Squad team, led by C. Gopakumar, veterinary surgeon.
The mahout had a narrow escape after the animal shoved him aside with its trunk. The elephant briskly marched down the road and ambushed a car parked nearby. The vehicle got crushed in the offensive. It then went on to drag a mini-lorry for over 50 metres before toppling the vehicle. The animal also uprooted some coconut trees on the wayside.
Dr. Gopakumar said the elephant was not in musth. The elephant had killed five mahouts earlier. It was in the news recently after it crushed to death a mahout near Alappuzha before walking all the way to its ‘home' temple at Nannoor.
A police team led by Circle Inspector (Thiruvalla) Vinu Varghese and sub-inspector G. Santhoshkumar reached the spot and blocked vehicular traffic on T.K. Road. A large number of people had assembled by then. Traffic remained disrupted for over two hours.
In Palakkad, the incident occurred at the festival at Parakkoottikavu, near Kulappully, at night. The people injured are Arun, 24, of Thonurkara; Pushpan, 34, of Palakkad; Mohandas, 55, of Karakkodi, Mundukotturkurissi, and Aneesh, 18, of Kootanad.
They have been admitted to a private hospital at Vaniyamkulam, the police said. They were injured while trying to escape. The elephants were brought under control by the mahouts and the police.
