VIJAYAWADA: Keeping the people of the villages abutting the Koundinya wildlife sanctuary in Chittoor district on their toes, a herd of elephants entered Moghalivaripalle again on Tuesday, trampling down crops. The herd returned to a farm land where one of the elephants was electrocuted a day earlier.
A large herd of elephants strayed into the village on Sunday night and wreaked havoc on the standing crops even as the villagers and forest officials looked on helplessly in the face of menacing animals.
On Monday morning, they found a huge adult pachyderm dead apparently after coming in contact with a dangling 11 kv wire in one of the agriculture fields.
The forest officials buried carcass of the elephant in the agriculture field itself. To their shock, the herd returned on Tuesday morning and went around the agricultural fields in the vicinity trampling down the crops and trumpeting wildly.
“The herd gathered around the burial spot (grave) and kept on trumpeting loudly moving around the grave. They seemed to be paying tributes to their deceased colleague,’’ a forest official said. The villagers and forest officials did not make any attempt to drive away the herd as the elephants kept moving around the burial pit.
The herd looked agitated clearly and moved around the agricultural fields restlessly for sometime damaging the crops, the forest official said. After sometime, they disappeared into the forest only after leaving a trail of destruction behind.
Meanwhile, the forest officials snapped power supply in the village as 11kv wires passing through the fields were dangling dangerously posing threat to human life and wild animals.Officials said the fields are just a few feet away from the forest boundaries and there is no way to contain the pachyderms from straying into the villages.