Palakkad: A tribal woman was trampled to death by a wild elephant in the early hours of Thursday outside her home near the Attappady forest area of Kerala’s Palakkad district.

The Range Forest Officer of the area told PTI that the incident occurred around 2 am when the woman along with her husband stepped out of the house hearing some noise made by their cattle.

While the husband went to the toilet, the woman moved towards the cattle shed but without switching on the light and therefore, did not see the tusker standing there, the officer said.

When she got close, the wild elephant attacked her leading to her death on the spot, he said.

As the place was barely 150 metres from the forest boundary, there were forest officials stationed close by and on getting information about the incident they rushed there and drove the tusker back to the forest, the officer said.

As a result, no one else was injured in the incident.

He also said the tusker was part of an eight-member herd of elephants that was driven back into the forest recently.

However, the tusker appears to have stuck around and ventured out into the area with habitations on the forest boundary on Thursday, he added.