Colin Manvell, a wildlife photographer and tennis player, had left home ten days ago to travel to India for a three week trek.
He was found by a friend minutes after being trampled by an elephant in a tiger reserve in the Nilgiri Hills, in Tamil Nadu on Thursday, as he searched for exotic birds to photograph.
A friend of the former tennis champion, who is said to have spent his retirement tending his neighbours’ gardens, said it was “no surprise” if his hearing problem meant he had failed to hear an elephant approaching him from behind.
Mr Manvell’s friend and driver Romi Malaikkal searched for the 67-year-old when he failed to turn up to a café they were meeting at. He found his body slumped on the ground near a jungle water hole around 15 feet from an elephant, where he had blood round his mouth but was still breathing.
He took him to a clinic which redirected them to the Gudalur Government Hospital, but Mr Manvell was dead by the time they arrived.
