A drone picture showing a herd of wild elephants from Karnataka camping at a forested valley near Gudipala in Chittoor district. File
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A farmer was trampled to death by a herd of six wild elephants near the Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border on Monday (August 3, 2026) night, setting off protests in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu. On the Chittoor side, farmers are staying out of their fields, unsure where the herd will move next.
The farmer, a resident of Chinna Matarlapalle village in Krishnagiri district, was attacked while the six-member herd moved through agricultural land close to the buffer zone. The village is barely 12 km from Kuppam, and the elephants have been crisscrossing the contiguous forest along the inter-State border for several days, besides straying into human habitations.
At midnight, a large number of farmers blocked the Madanapalle-Krishnagiri National Highway at Chinna Matarlapalle, disrupting inter-State traffic between Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for several hours. The police reached the border on both sides and diverted vehicles through interior roads.
The farmers relented after Bargur MLA E.C. Govindarasan and Krishnagiri MLA P. Mukundhan visited the protest site and spoke to them, and assured them that the issue would be taken up on priority. Forest officials also said a kumki elephant operation would be launched soon to address the man-animal conflict.
The same herd killed a cow in another border village.
Following the death, farmers in the Kuppam division are being advised to avoid early morning and late evening visits to their fields, amid concerns that the elephants could cross into Andhra Pradesh through the contiguous forest corridor.
Published – August 04, 2026 05:39 pm IST
