A middle-aged couple from Ahmedabad was trampled to death by a wild elephant in Kerala's Periyar Tiger Reserve on Wednesday.
Bhupendra B Ravel (52) and his wife Jagriti (50) were killed by the elephant while they tried to click its photo during a trek in the Gavi forest region in the PTR. The camera flash is said to have provoked the elephant. The couple, accompanied by a forest tour guide, was on a trekking trip organised by the Kerala Forest Development Corporation.
Gavi, close to the Sabarimala temple, is a deep forest and has in the past few years emerged as a key centre for tourists interested in wildlife and forest trekking. Since there are a lot of wildlife including tigers and elephants in Gavi, there are restrictions on visitors and trekking is allowed only on the package run by the KFDC, which has arranged accommodation and other facilities for visitors within the forest.