Chennai, May 17 (IANS): A research intern with the Salim Ali Institute of Ornithology in Tamil Nadu's Anakatty died after he was trampled by a wild elephant.

The incident occurred while the Vishal Sreemala of Rajasthan, who was on the research duty, was walking through the forest area and accidentally reached in front of the wild elephant that turned violent and threw the boy in the air and then trampled him.

The incident occurred on Tuesday night.

The injured was immediately taken to the Agali tribal hospital on the Kerala border but he was declared dead on arrival.

Sreemala had been an intern at the institute for the past few months. His body will be handed over to his relatives after a post-mortem at the government taluk hospital in Agali.

This is the third human fatality due to an elephant attack so far this year.

Locals are agitating against the Tamil Nadu forest department for not properly tackling the issue of wild elephants straying into farm lands and attacking people.