Toddler, grandmom killed in elephant attack

A two-and-a-half-year-old girl and her 55-year-old grandmother were trampled to death when they attempted to flee the attack of a wild elephant at their house at Valparai in the wee hours of Monday.

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The victims, identified as M Hemasree and her grandmother C Asala, were sleeping in their makeshift home when the elephant squeezed its trunk through the open window of the small house by pushing aside a tin sheet that covered it in search of food around 3.45 am. The victims' home is one of the only two houses located at the fifth division of Waterfall Estate near Valparai, which is entirely surrounded by tea estates, sources said.

As the child started screaming in fear on seeing the huge, dark trunk entering through the hole in the wall, Asala lifted the child and tried to escape through the main door in the dead of the night. Agitated by the child's cry, the animal scrambled to the main door and attacked Asala, who fell down and sustained injuries to her hips, before trampling the child to death. Hemasree's parents Mariyappan (28) and Suganya (25) who were left helpless inside the house during the attack, later alerted the forest officials, who rushed to the spot.