A 31-year-old man was trampled to death by a lone elephant on Thursday night at Vellarukkampalayam near Thondamuthur.

According to sources, Shaktivel, a labourer and his friend Ponnusamy, went to the farm land near their house to relieve themselves. Due to darkness, they failed to notice a lone elephant near the farm. When the elephant neared
them, the duo started running.

While Ponnusamy managed to escape, Shaktivel fell down. The elephant trampled him to death.

Ponnusamy who reached the village informed the villagers, who alerted forest and police personnel.

Forest personnel and Thondamuthur police rushed to the spot, recovered Shaktivel’s body and sent it for postmortem to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital.

Villagers, on Friday, resorted to road roko condemning the civic authorities for not installing street lights in the area. “If there had been street lights, this incident would not have happened. They both would have spotted the elephant. We have been living in constant fear especially during night times as it is pitch dark. We do not venture out at all,” a villager said.

Police officials pacified the agitating villagers and asked them to disperse.