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Mahout dies after elephant attack at Kerala’s Konni camp
A 62-year-old mahout, Mohanan Nair, died after being attacked by an elephant at the Forest Department's camp in Konni, Pathanamthitta, on Saturday afternoon. Police said Nair was checking a minor injury on…
The Story in Brief
A 62-year-old mahout, Mohanan Nair, died after being attacked by an elephant at the Forest Department's camp in Konni, Pathanamthitta, on Saturday afternoon. Police said Nair was checking a minor injury on the trunk of an elephant named Priyadarshini when the animal turned on him. Nair was rushed to hospital but succumbed to his injuries. He normally handled another elephant, Meena, but was assigned to Priyadarshini because her regular mahout was absent. Konni police have registered a case of unnatural death and started an investigation.
The Indian Opinion
This tragedy will inevitably reignite calls to ban captive elephant camps. But the real test is whether forest departments improve training and safety protocols for mahouts. Priyadarshini's handler was absent; Mohanan Nair was substitiuted at short notice. Was there a standard operating procedure for treating trunk injuries? The answer lies in the postmortem report and the investigation by Konni police. Until camps enforce strict accountability, such incidents will keep damaging the case for captive elephant management.
Source: telanganatoday.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
