COIMBATORE: Farmers association has announced a protest in front of Jothipuram Thandumariyamman temple on Tuesday morning demanding forest department officials to take steps to control intrusion of wild animals into their lands around Periyanaickenpalayam forest range.
State president of the association, Tamilaga Vivasayigal Sangam, Venugopal said, “Many farmers have left farming in the past decade due to frequent intrusion of wild elephants. We demand the forest department officials, who have been taking efforts to arrest people hunting wild boars and spotted deer, to take steps to prevent animal intrusion into the farmlands.”
Meanwhile, multiple incidents of elephant intrusions were reported from across Coimbatore district on Saturday. A herd of 12 elephants, including five calves, ate fodder from half an acre farm land near Theethipalayam in the outskirts of Coimbatore in the early hours on Saturday. The herd also entered another farmland and damaged the borewell water pipeline apart from destroying tomato crops there. The farmers of both lands claimed that the estimated loss is Rs 40,000 and they requested the forest department to handover compensation to them as soon as possible.
Similarly, another herd of nine elephants ventured into a farmland in Kembanur near Thondamuthur and damaged over 40 coconut trees, which were over five years old. Meanwhile, a leopard entered a poultry farm and lifted a chicken in Yamuna Nagar in Kanuvai in the early hours on Saturday.