Erode (Tamil Nadu), A 70-year-old woman was crushed to death by a rogue elephant in the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve here on Saturday.

According to the police, the elephant was in search of water and food and entered the Thalavady forest range and Neethalapuram forest area under Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) this morning. The elephant went into some sugarcane fields and damaged standing crops and then entered Neethalapuram village.

The police officer said that when the victim, 70-year-old woman Kalamma, came out of her house, the rogue elephant attacked her and crushed her to death on the spot.

Hearing the woman's scream, the frightened neighbors scared the elephant away.

Thalavadi police reached the spot and removed the body and sent it to the government hospital in Thalavadi. People from the area gathered at the hospital and urged the forest department to dig deep trenches around the fertile private land to save crops and human lives from wild animals, especially elephants.

Villagers told the police that this is the third incident and a total of three people have been killed by elephants in the area in two months.