India, Sept. 10 -- At around 9 am on August 27, rain and mist around Thalakkulam near Pooppara in Kerala's Munnar region concealed a danger that residents of the state's high ranges have learnt to fear.

S Ochappan, 68, a farmer from Bodinayakanur in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, had gone to his daughter's cardamom plantation to check whether the crop was ready for harvest when a wild elephant suddenly attacked him. He was taken to the Government Medical College Hospital at nearby Theni but died on the way.

Ochappan's death has once again brought Munnar and its surrounding high ranges into the centre of Kerala's worsening human-elephant conflict. It came less than three months after 36-year-old Mari was trampled to death at Chinnakanal on Jun...