Image credit : Illustrative Image

A 71-year-old farmer was trampled to death by an elephant near Pollachi in the wee hours of Tuesday.

According to police, Velumani, a resident of Sethumadai in Anamalai in the district, was staying in a temporary shed with his wife Velathal (65) near the agriculture land (that he had taken on lease adjacent to the forest area near Pollachi) to drive away elephants and other wild animals that entered the land and destroyed the crops.

As a wild elephant strayed into the farm on Tuesday morning and started destroying the maize crop, Velumani came out of the shed to drive away the pachyderm.

However, the elephant chased him away and hit him with its trunk.

Velathal, who searched her husband, found him lying dead in a pool of blood. She informed the police, who arrived at the scene and shifted the body to Government Hospital in Vettaikaran Pudur.

Forest department officials are initiating steps to drive away the elephant to the jungles, police said.