KOCHI: The district collector has assured the demands of the locals in the incident where a youth was attacked by a wild elephant at Kuttampuzha near Kothamangalam in Ernakulam. With this, the locals ended their protest that lasted for more than eight hours. The dead was Eldhose of Knachary.

Eldhose, who was working as a security officer in Thrissur, was attacked by the wild elephant while returning home after work at around 8:30 pm last night. He was walking home after getting down from the KSRTC bus. As it was dark and since there were no street lights, Eldhose could not see the wild elephant standing there. His body was then found lying on the road.

A tense situation was prevailing in the area as the locals staged protests. The locals ended their protests after Collector N S K Umesh assured to meet their demands including compensation to the kin of the dead. The collector handed over a cheque of Rs 10 lakh to Eldhose's family as emergency assistance.

As per the demand of the locals, the construction of trenches will begin today. KSEB has also started installing streetlights in the area. The locals have been demanding the installation of streetlights for years. Solar fencing work will begin on December 21. Hanging solar fences will be installed. The collector will personally inspect whether the things promised are being implemented. The ccollector informed the locals that a review meeting will be held on December 27 after this.

The body of Eldhose has been shifted to Kothamangalam Hospital. It will be handed over to his family after postmortem. He was the only breadwinner of his aged parents. Meanwhile, the locals said that there will be no change in the protest rally to be organized at 3 pm in Kothamangalam today