A 17-year-old college student returning home was fatally trampled by a wild elephant in southern India, setting off large protests as locals demanded action amid a rise in deadly human-wildlife encounters that have killed hundreds in recent years.
Pooja, a first-year pre-university student at St. Michael’s Composite PU College in Madikeri, had just stepped off a bus near her home in Bettathuru village in Karnataka’s Kodagu district when an elephant charged from behind at around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 28, 2026.
The attack happened in seconds. Pooja’s mother, Devaki, heard her screams and ran toward her, but the assault ended almost immediately. Her father, Girish, had briefly ridden off to park his motorcycle; on returning he found his daughter badly injured and lying in a pool of blood.
Pooja was taken to the Government Hospital in Madikeri, where doctors were unable to save her. A postmortem was later performed at the hospital. The sudden death devastated the close-knit village and sparked outrage over what residents say is government inaction on rising wildlife attacks.
Distraught villagers acted quickly. On Sunday, locals joined farmers’ groups and workers from the Bharatiya Janata Party to block National Highway 275 for more than two hours, bringing traffic to a standstill across several kilometers on the Mysuru-Bantwal stretch while demanding urgent steps to prevent further deaths.
Madikeri Deputy Conservator of Forests Abhishek visited Pooja’s family at the hospital and said authorities would try to capture the elephant involved. “The Rapid Response Team has rushed to the spot and efforts are underway to drive the elephant back into the forest,” he told local media. The Karnataka government later announced compensation of Rs 20 lakh, about $22,000, for the family.
The episode highlights an ongoing deadly issue in Karnataka. Forest department records show wild animals have killed 254 people statewide over the past five years, with 42 deaths in 2024-25 alone. Around 70 percent of these fatalities were caused by elephants, tigers, and leopards—species whose ranges increasingly overlap with expanding villages, farms, and infrastructure.
Kodagu district lies at a forested tri-junction of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala, where traditional elephant corridors now intersect closely with human settlements. Villagers said that in the second week of February a young man returning from resort work was seriously injured in a similar elephant attack on the same road and narrowly escaped death. This growing overlap has increased dangerous encounters, putting students, farmers, and daily wage laborers at particular risk.
Human-wildlife conflict is not limited to Karnataka. In early January, a solitary male elephant terrorized Jharkhand in the east, killing at least 22 people over about ten days in West Singhbhum district before evading capture. The attacks, which began on January 1 in the Chaibasa and Kolhan areas of the Saranda forest belt—one of Asia’s largest sal forests—mainly targeted villagers guarding crops near forest edges at night.
Official figures show the crisis’s scale. Jharkhand has recorded roughly 1,270 human deaths from elephant attacks over the past 18 years, while nearly 150 elephants have also died in conflict incidents—making it one of India’s most severe human-elephant conflict zones.
The wildlife emergency coincides with worrying trends for India’s elephant population. In October 2025, a DNA-based census by the Wildlife Institute of India estimated the wild elephant population at 22,446, down from 27,312 in 2017. Researchers cautioned that the new method is not directly comparable to earlier counts and should serve as a fresh baseline.
Bettathuru residents and neighboring villages say they’ve repeatedly warned officials about increased elephant movements near homes, but complain authorities act only after fatalities instead of taking preventive steps. Community leaders are calling for more patrols, physical barriers, deployment of elephant tracking technology, improved early warning systems, and better interdepartmental coordination.
Pooja’s death has deeply affected the community. Neighbors remembered her as a bright, soft-spoken student who wanted to continue her education. She had finished annual exams on February 19 and stayed with her mother, who works as a cook at a nearby ashram school. Her passing is another young life lost amid the struggle to balance wildlife conservation and human safety.
Forest Department officials said they are monitoring elephant movement in the area and have started measures to push animals back into the forest. They also promised assistance to the victim’s family according to government norms.
As Bettathuru grieves, the incident has renewed urgent calls for a balanced approach to protect both endangered wildlife and vulnerable communities at the forest edge. Residents hope that concrete and sustained action will be taken to prevent similar tragedies and spare other families the devastation suffered by Pooja’s loved ones.