Madurai : A 56-year-old woman died after she was allegedly attacked by a boar while she was relieving herself in scrubland in Ramanathapuram district. The death has raised questions over sanitation claims in Ariyanendal, which government showcased as a ‘model village’ under Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen).
Around 10.45pm, they found her lying dead in a pool of blood among the scrub. However, as she did not return home for more than an hour, her husband, Murali, and other relatives began searching the fields behind their house. With no toilet at home and community facilities unusable, M Kaali Muthu, an anganwadi worker from Ariyanendal in Ramanathapuram district, ventured outside around 9pm on Tuesday.
An investigating officer said the body had bite marks on the right thigh, which resembled those of a wild boar, but the cause of the injuries could be confirmed only after the postmortem report was received.
It may be recalled that the rural sanitation programme’s 2022 ‘success story’ was presented as an example for other villages to follow. In that account, government acknowledged toilet coverage was just 10% before 2012, when residents defecated near prosopis thickets amid outbreaks of waterborne diseases. The District Rural Development Agency said it cleared 23 acres of scrubland and launched extensive tree planting to create a ‘beautiful forest’. Government records list nearly ₹63 lakh in estimated drainage and soak-pit works under multiple schemes.
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Boars regularly stray through the thickets behind her home, where invasive prosopis juliflora trees grow amid dense scrub, residents said. People began to use the toilets that were constructed,” the mission’s blog said. Police registered a case and sent her body to Paramakudi government hospital for postmortem examination. Police and forest officials are investigating the circumstances of the death. “This initiative took away the open defecation areas traditionally used by villagers in their vicinity. Download the TOI App.