THE following is a representative list of incidents of elephants or leopards attacking humans or entering settlements, from January 2011:
January 9: Police Inspector Muralidhar Muluk pumps bullets into a leopard to release a man from its grip at Karad town in Maharashtra. It had sunk its teeth into the man's head and injured six other persons after it entered the town from a nearby forest.
January 18: Six leopards enter Omletti village near Hosur, Tamil Nadu, from the nearby forests and kill 15 goats.
January 30: A herd of 12 elephants enters villages and camps for several hours in a banana grove at Somayanur in the Thadagam valley of Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu. Three female calves in the herd attract thousands of villagers, and Forest Department and police officials struggle to keep them at bay. The incident becomes a media circus.
January 31: About 24 elephants enter Lakshmipuram village in Kuppam mandal of Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, and damage crops. They came from Karnataka through the Gudupalle-Kuppam route.
February 2: Leopards kill eight goats at Gopasandiram village located between Hosur and Soolagiri towns. The same day, about 40 elephants from Anchetty forests enter villages near Hosur and damage crops.
February first week: Poachers kill a tusker and remove its tusks in the Ennamangalam reserve forest in Andhiyur range in Erode district, Tamil Nadu. Two bullets are removed from the animal during a post-mortem examination.
February 9: Three elephants trample three women workers to death in a tea garden of the State-government-owned TANTEA, at Periyakallaru, 20 km from Valparai town.
March 6: A group of nine elephants damages the thatched roof of a house at Alandurai, near Coimbatore. Two elephants enter Atikkal Agaram, 15 km from Krishnagiri town, Tamil Nadu, from the Palacode reserve forests and damage crops. The same day, an elephant fatally attacks M. Annappan (53), a tea estate worker in Ryan Division of TANTEA.
March 10: An elephant attacks and injures a member of an international bicycling team which was cycling to Udhagamandalam (Ooty). The incident takes place near the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.
March 27: A herd of 13 elephants attacks and kills 80-year-old G. Kenjappan and his three-year-old grandson N. Narasimhan, who were sleeping in a makeshift hut in a mango orchard at Kuruparapalee near Krishnagiri.
April 11: Elephants fatally attack Marathal (46), sleeping in a hut in her vegetable farm at Sujalkuttai village near the Bhavanisagar range forest in Erode district.
April 27: Five elephants trample to death P. Karupayee Ammal (60) of Thevaram village near Theni in the Western Ghats when she was sleeping in a hut in her farm.
May 17: An elephant attacks and kills Chinma (48), a brick kiln worker, at Chinna Thadagam village, Thadagam valley.
May 18: A leopard attacks and kills three-year-old Janani, daughter of Sakthivel, at Thaimudi village, Valparai taluk, Coimbatore district.
May 27: A leopard enters the bungalow of actor Hema Malini, close to the Arey Colony jungle near Mumbai.
June 6: A wild elephant attacks and kills Sivalingam at Pudukaadu near Baliyar village in Coonoor taluk of Nilgiris district.
June 9: Two elephants enter Mysore city from the nearby forests, and one of them, a young tusker, goes on the rampage, mauling a cow and killing a guard at an ATM kiosk.
T.S. SubramanianCOMMents
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