After whipping the elephant with a cane to force it down, Arun Panicker slipped — and fell in the worst possible spot right as the animal followed his orders.
It is reported that the animal trainer died instantly from a crushed skull after the 10,000lb elephant sat on him. The entire incident was captured by security cameras and the footage has already circulated across social media, with some arguing that he deserved it for whipping the animal and others merely shocked at the gruesome series of events.
Mahout gets trapped under jumbo, dies
KOTTAYAM: A mahout met with a tragic death as he got crushed under a tusker while giving bath to the animal here on Sunday. Tusker Bharath Vishwanathan owned by the Bharath Hospital Group accidentally crushed to death its mahout Arun Panicker, 40, hailing from Chennithala in Alappuzha, when he slipped and fell while trying to punish the elephant who was not obeying his commands. Soon after Panicker fell down, the elephant sat down on his head, resulting in an immediate death.
The incident took place around 9.30am near a temple in Karappuzha in the town limits. The tusker was about to be paraded for the festival in the temple in the evening.
After spraying water on the elephant using a hosepipe, Panicker gave command to the tusker to lie down to the right side. However, ignoring this the tusker tried to lie down to the left side. Got angry with this, he tried to beat the elephant. However, he slipped and fell, his body above the waist getting trapped under the tusker which sat down. He was killed on the spot as his skull was broken.
Vishnu, the second mahout, who is the brother of Panicker’s wife, rushed to the spot seeing the incident. He made the tusker stand up and took out Arun’s body. The body, which was shifted to Bharath hospital, was handed over to the relatives after autopsy. The entire incident was caught on a CCTV camera installed at the spot. Panicker took over as the mahout of Vishwanathan two years ago.
The funeral will be held on his residential premises on Monday. Panicker leaves behind wife Saritha and children Akhil and Shiva Nanda.
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