: DMDK MLA S R Parthiban today submitted a petition to District Collector V Sampath, alleging that Karnataka forest department officials had been harassing villagers over deaths of two elephants and removal of its tusks in July near Madeswara hills.
Parthiban, representing Mettur, said the carcasses of the pachyderms were found near the hills on the Tamil Nadu- Karnataka border. The forest department officials were pressurising the villagers and harassing them to say that they and former smuggler 'Kutty Veerappan' had shot and killed the elephants, he said.
The MLA was accompanied by Kutty Veerappan.
