A truck knocked down three wild tuskers, killing them on the spot, near Palamaner on the Chittoor-Bengaluru highway late on Wednesday night.
The incident once again brought to the limelight on the risk posed to animals in the Koundinya reserve forest abutting the highway that links Bengaluru to both Chennai and Tirupati.
The truck heading towards Chennai ploughed into a herd of wild elephants crossing the road, killing three. As the panicked driver, who was reportedly in an inebriated condition, deserted the vehicle and fled the spot, traffic on the national highway came to a standstill.
District Forest Officer (Chittoor) C. Chaitanya Kumar Reddy said two elephants were in the age group of 10-15 years, the third one was aged less than 10 years. After performing postmortem, the three were buried in the reserve forest area.
The driver had been apprehended and would be booked under the relevant sections for causing the death of the wild animals. The accident has once again brought the focus on the much-deliberated need to provide a safe corridor for the wild animals by building an underpass at Bhuthalavanda and Jagamarla cross on the ghat section.