Temple elephant stamps boy to death in Karnataka

An eight-year-old boy was stamped to death by an elephant in a temple at Yediyur in Karnataka’s Tumkur district.

Police said the tragic incident took place when the boy identified as Sachin was feeding bananas to the female elephant tied inside the Siddalingeshwar Temple at Yediyur on Sunday along with his 12-year-old brother Sanjay.

Sachin was caught unawares when the pachyderm suddenly caught him in its trunk and thrashed him to the ground. The boy died almost instantly.

Sachin and Sanjay had accompanied their father Manjunath, an autorickshaw driver in Bangalore, to a wedding at Bellur Cross. After attending the wedding, they arrived at the Siddalingeshwar Temple at Yediyur and arranged for a special pooja.

When Manjunath was busy with the ceremonies inside the Temple, the children strayed in the compound and reached the rear side, where the elephant had been tied beyond a small wall. After scaling the wall, Sachin and Sanjay began feeding the elephant.

Though the elephant took the first banana offered by the children in its trunk and began eating it peacefully, it suddenly caught hold of Sachin when he tried to feed it for the second time. Immediately, Sanjay ran and informed the matter to his father.

By the time, Manjunath and others in the Temple could rush to the spot, the elephant had stamped Sachin, who was lying in a pool of blood. Soon, the boy breathed his last. The mahout was not present when the tragic incident took place.

Meanwhile, the locals, enraged over the tragedy, ransacked the administration office of the Temple. Computers and other equipments kept inside the office were ransacked. Later, they kept the dead body of the child and staged a protest.

Soon, the local legislators and district administration officials rushed to the spot and consoled the child’s father. Deputy Commissioner of Tumkur district Umashankar announced a compensation of Rs 50,000.

Umashankar said the elephant had been domesticated and had never behaved in an aggressive manner. However, he assured to direct the Temple authorities to build a separate shed for the elephant and keep it out of bounds for the visitors. “Though a wall been built and the elephant is tied within it, the boys had scaled the wall when the mahout was not present, leading to the disaster”, he said.