Schoolboy turned mahout, mad craze for elephants; Gloom descends over Sreekuttan's death

ATTINGAL: Since childhood, Sreekuttan had an unquenchable love for elephants. He was only 25 when crushed under the giant legs of the pachyderm on musth.

It was last week that Sreekuttan, the son of Kuttappan and Bindu, a couple from Attingal, Kizhuvilam, Chittatinkara, got trampled to death by an elephant at the Irinjalakuda Koodalmanikyam temple festival. He was the second mahout of the elephant.

Sreekuttan grew fond of the giant after travelling with his father, Kuttappan, a mahout himself. He even dropped out of school to become a mahout. He became a mahout's assistant in 2015. Sreekuttan had been taking care of the same elephant for the last five years. Others remember Sree as a fearless boy who had the knack to tame the giant even at the time of musth. On the day of the incident, the elephant had run amok, forcing Sreekuttan to tame it, but tragedy ensued.

After Sreekuttan's sister Sreekutty's death, he was the sole hope of the family.