A couple escaped from a wild elephant that entered a residential area at the Marudhamalai foothills on Saturday night.
Forest Department officials said that an adult tusker entered Arul Nagar at IOB Colony at the Marudhamalai foothills around 9.40 p.m.
As the elephant was moving along a street, a resident, Sivakumar, stepped outside his home after hearing the noise. He spotted the tusker at close range and quickly ran back into the house. His wife, who was about to step outside the house, also managed to get inside just in time.
The tusker followed Mr. Sivakumar and slammed the metal gate of the house before leaving the area.
Officials said that the same tusker later entered the Bharathiar University campus, which abuts a reserve forest falling under the Coimbatore forest range, and went to the swimming pool on the rear side of the campus. Front-line staff of the Department, who were following the tusker, drove the animal back into the forest.
Previously on May 23, a tusker that entered the university campus attacked a security guard, who died on the spot.
