Bengaluru: Elderly man killed in suspected elephant attack near Mysuru Road

An elderly man, who was on his morning walk with his daughter, was killed in a suspected elephant attack near Mysuru Road, roughly about a kilometre from RajaRajeswari Medical College and GoodEarth Malhar apartments.  

The victim, identified as Nagaraju, was 60 years old and a resident of Anchepalya near Mysuru Road. The incident reportedly happened around 5 a.m. on Monday (September 28, 2026) in Doddabele village, near Vaarahi Vivarea apartments. 

Early morning alert

Sandeep Nanu, a resident of GoodEarth Malhar and a wildlife enthusiast, rushed to the spot at around 5.20 am after being alerted about an elephant in the vicinity and a man lying on the road, injured. On seeing the man bleeding badly, he contacted the RajaRajeswari Medical College and called for an ambulance. Parallely he also contacted the forest officials. 

“When I reached the spot, a few security guards were gathered around the injured person. They too had seen the elephant. However, they did not see the elephant attacking the man,” Mr. Nanu clarified.  

Nagaraju who reportedly suffered a rib injury, passed away at the hospital. 

CCTV visuals from the Vaarahi Vivarea Apartments show the elephant on the Malhar Avenue Road, the road leading to the apartments, at 5:11 a.m. 
| Photo Credit:
Special arrangement

Elephant being tracked

“He used to do morning walks every day and walk past our house around 5.30 a.m. He had recently retired and used to work at a factory nearby earlier,” said Prema, a resident in the locality. 

CCTV visuals from the Vaarahi Vivarea Apartments show the elephant on the Malhar Avenue Road, the road leading to the apartments, at 5:11 a.m. 

N.R. Kamble, Range Forest Officer, Kaggalipura Range, said that the cause of death can be confirmed only after postmortem, as nobody has seen the incident. According to him the elephant has reached the spot from the Bannerghatta Wildlife Sanctuary.  

“We reached the spot after receiving a call around 5 a.m. Our team is tracking the elephant,” Mr. Kamble said.  

According to him, the previous sighting of elephants in the area was around 4-5 years ago. “They come from Banneghatta to BM Kaval Forest and return after 5-6 days. But, in this area, it is rare,” he said. 

Human-animal conflict

Dr. Nidhi Paliwal, a resident of GoodEarth Malhar apartments said that in 2020, too, an elephant was spotted on Malhar Avenue.

“CCTV visuals then showed a sighting of an elephant close to the forest area where they could go drink water from the Vrishabhavati River,” said Dr. Paliwal, who criticised the encroachments in the area.

“The BM Kaval forest area is also now encroached. The government needs to keep all these in mind when it is blindly opposing the ESA. A person has lost his life for what? He was not walking in the forest or some area where he was not supposed to. This is not something we can turn a blind eye towards or ignore for our economic gains,” she said.