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PURULIA: An elephant appeared to take grave objection to a farmer relieving himself in the open on Wednesday and carried the man away wrapped in his trunk. The pachyderm ran almost 50 metres through a field before dropping the panicking man to the ground and disappearing into the forest in Purulia district in West Bengal .

The area has been deserted since 4 am on Wednesday, when the incident took place.

Niranjan Sahish (55) lay in the field for some time before forest department officials arrived and took him to the primary health care centre after which he was taken to a hospital. "He received injuries to his legs and back but is out of danger," a doctor said. Sahish told officials that the elephant may have entered the village in search of food but panicked on seeing him.

As on any other day, Sahish had stepped out of his home in Ghatbera village, near the Ayodhya Hills in Purulia, and gone to a nearby field to relieve himself.

He heard the elephant approaching and before he knew it the elephant had wrapped its trunk around him.

"I thought I was going to die and kept praying to God. When the elephant dropped me to the ground, I could not believe my luck," Sahish told officials.

"The village is on an elephant route. We often tell villagers to avoid going near the forest," said Subinoy Panda of Balaram forest range. A district administration official said they often hold awareness campaigns in the area to tell people to use lavatories at home instead of relieving themselves in the fields.

