COIMBATORE: Even as farmers in Thadagam are demanding the forest department to capture and relocate a tusker that has been damaging crops, another wild elephant, nicknamed ‘Vedi Komban’, has started to frequent farmlands adjacent to Ponnuthuamman temple near the forest area.
In the wee hours on Wednesday, Vedi Komban damaged the grove owned by R Ramasamy, a retired headmaster, and tried to consume bran kept in a shed. Ramasamy said the animal entered his grove at 4am after damaging the solar-fence and damaged more than 50 banana plantations and dozens of sugarcane crops.
“The animal tried to consume bran and oil cake (punnakku) that was stored in the shed but could not take it with the trunk. This is the first time the animal has entered our grove. We have been spending sleepless nights for the last few weeks, because the elephant that killed a 69-year-old man had been frequenting our grove,” he said.
R Manokaran, a farmer from Kalaiyanur near Thadagam, said the forest department should take steps to keep him inside the forest. He added that staff arrived only after the animal damaged the grove.
Sources in the forest department said the animal got attracted to sugarcane and banana as the grove is located 500 metres from the forest boundary. “We brought kumki Chinnathambi from Kozhikamuthi camp to chase away the tusker that killed a 69 year old man. However, it has not entered the area in the last week, and we suspect it has gone into the forest. We have posted 12 staff exclusively to chase away elephants that come out of forests and enter residential area and farmland.”