Siddapur (Kodagu):  A wild elephant has seriously injured a woman labourer working at a coffee estate yesterday evening. 

The seriously injured woman, identified as 55-year-old Kamala, has been admitted to a hospital in Ammathi.

Kamala, who was working at the estate of BBTC Company, was returning home after work, when the jumbo attacked her leaving her seriously injured. A herd of four elephants and a calf were said to be roaming inside the coffee estate since morning and one elephant came on to the road and attacked the woman.

The Rapid Response Team (RRT) led by Deputy Range Forest Officer (DRFO) Shivakumar were driving the elephants which had stayed put in other estates during which a few elephants got separated from the herd and had entered Beetekaadu Coffee Estates. The labourers, after seeing the herd at the estates had returned home out of fear.

Labour leaders P.R. Bharath and Mahadev visited the hospital and later took the forest officials to task. They demanded a permanent solution to the menace as the driving operation by the Forest Department was proving futile as the elephants were entering from one estate to another instead of going back to the forest. They warned of staging protest along with labour unions if the Forest Department failed  to drive away the elephants back to the forest.

It may be recalled that on Wednesday, a wild tusker had attacked and seriously injured a school boy, who was on his way to the school at Bittangala. The boy is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Mangaluru. 

In another incident, a wild elephant attacked two women, who were working in a farm at Ammathi Vontiangadi near Virajpet. The women escaped miraculously and have been admitted to Virajpet General Hospital.