Elephant gorges mahout to death

A MAHOUT was gorged to death by an elephant on Wednesday who belonged to the famed Sri Krishna temple Guruvayoor.

Ratheesh, the mahout, was engaged in feeding the elephant named Chandrasekheran around noon inside the temple premises.

As per the authorities manning the elephants, Chandrasekheran (which has only one tusk) was a problematic elephant and for the past 26 years, he was confined to the place where these temple elephants are housed.

However, after the authorities confirmed that the elephant was behaving properly, he was brought to the Guruvayoor temple for events.

In the afternoon, Ratheesh while giving water to the elephant got close to him and in a flash, using the trunk, he got hold of Ratheesh and threw him down, and in a few minutes, he gorged him.

Even though he was quickly taken to the hospital, he breathed his last.