Bengaluru Tragedy: Woman Crushed To Death After Elephant Falls On Her At Dubare Camp

Bengaluru: A 33-year-old tourist from Chennai was crushed to death, when a camp elephant fell on her, while fighting with another camp elephant.

The deceased has been identified as Tulasi alias Jinshu (33), who had come to Dubare Elephant camp near Kushalnagar in Kodagu district.

The incident took place at around 12 noon, when the camp elephants were brought for bathing. Tulasi, who had come with her husband, wanted to give a bath to one of the elephants and got down near the bathing area. While she was standing next to an elephant called Marthanda, another elephant -- Kanjan, which was in musth picked up a fight with Marthanda.

Within a fraction of a second, a major fight broke out and the people around the elephants ran to safety. However, Tulasi was standing very close to Marthanda elephant inside the water and before she could get out of the water, Marthanda fell on her. Even while the camp staff tried to pull her out, the attacking elephant almost stood on  Marthanda, making it impossible to drag her from below the elephant.

This is the first such mishap that has taken place at Dubare, where the forest department keeps most of the tamed elephants, including the ones which are sent to Dasara for carrying Ambari.

It is a tourism destination in Karnataka also, where the people get to feed and play with the elephants during bathing hours. Kanjan, which attacked Marthanda, is one of the elephants that was taken to the 2025 Dasara festival. During its stay in Mysuru, it had created panic twice by attacking other elephants.

Expressing his regret over the incident, Forest, Environment and Ecology Minister Eshwar B Khandre said that the tourists would be asked to keep a safe distance from the elephants.

Though they are tamed animals, it is difficult to understand their moods and behaviour in particular times and the officials will be instructed to stop allowing the tourists getting close to animals, feed them or give them a bath.