KARWAR: Elephants which raid fields of farmers are usually given an unceremonious welcome with guns, firecrackers and drums. But farmers near a village in Mundgod taluk did something unique when faced with a group of elephants who trampled their fields and destroyed crops.
A day after they managed to chase away the elephants, the farmers performed a puja to the footprints of the jumbos. The incident was reported in Ugginakeri village on Wednesday. The villagers also did not lodge any complaint with the Forest Department as they claimed that elephants raiding their fields on a full moon day was a good sign.
Residents said a herd of five elephants entered the arecanut farm of Kotrappa Basappa Channannavar and damaged about 15 trees.
Later, the same herd entered the maize field of Gadagayya and damaged a portion of it. Next day, both the farmers performed a puja to the footprints of the jumbos.
Channannavar said that an elephant which is also known as Gajalakshmi in Hinduism entered their fields on a full moon day. “It is a sign of prosperity. Gajalakshmi entered our fields on Bhoomi Hunnime. Therefore, we performed puja to the footprints and offered some food to it,” he said. He also added he expects a good yield in the coming days due to elephants entering the fields.
For the elephants, which were forced to depart the fields of the two farmers, the raids are now continuing in other greener pastures outside the forest area.
In the last six months, several incidents of elephants raiding farms have been reported in Mundgod. The Forest Department has registered 368 cases of elephant attack and crop- raiding in 2017 in Yellapur and Mundgod.