A herd of eight elephants damaged the gates of two houses, preyed on banana and other fruit bearing trees at Jeyendra Nagar very close to Bharathiar University on Maruthamalai Road in the wee hours of Sunday. R. Shantha (78) and her friend G. Vanitha (45) who live in one of the houses said they remained indoors for a long time as they did not want to take the risk of coming out of the house. Shantha, a retired Tamil Nadu Agricultural University professor.“I am living here for 10 years. Elephants used to walk through the area once in a while. This is the first time they entered the compound,” she said. The animals went on a rampage from midnight and started leaving the area at around 4 a.m. Meanwhile, forest department personnel who started chasing three elephants into the forest at Theethipalayam in Booluvampatti Forest Range on Saturday morning with Kumki elephant Paari succeeded around 3 a.m. on Sunday. Apart from these, a lone tusker roaming around Madukkarai over the last few months hit Palakkad bypass road close to midnight on Saturday. It roamed about Madukkarai, Madukkarai Market and went till Eachanari bypass before leaving the road. A senior forest department official said that every year elephants cross Coimbatore on their way to Sathyamangalam from Siruvani catchment area, Silent Valley and Mannarkad between October and January. He said that mushrooming of buildings outside the forest could be one of the reasons for the frequent entry of elephants into residential localities over the last few weeks. Forest department personnel said that equipped teams are on the move to check movement of the animals and to chase them into the forest.
Elephants go on rampage
A herd of eight elephants damaged the gates of two houses, preyed on banana and other fruit bearing trees at Jeyendra Nagar very close to Bharathiar University on Maruthamalai Road in the wee hours of Sunday. R. Shantha (78) and her friend G. Vanitha (45) who live in one of the houses said they remained indoors for a long time as they did not want to take the risk of coming out of the house. Shantha, a retired Tamil Nadu Agricultural University professor.“I am living here for 10 years. Elephants used to walk through the area once in a while. This is the first time they entered the compound,” she said. The animals went on a rampage from midnight and started leaving the area at around 4 a.m. Meanwhile, forest department personnel who started chasing three elephants into the forest at Theethipalayam in Booluvampatti Forest Range on Saturday morning with Kumki elephant Paari succeeded around 3 a.m. on Sunday. Apart from these, a lone tusker roaming around Madukkarai over the last few months hit Palakkad bypass road close to midnight on Saturday. It roamed about Madukkarai, Madukkarai Market and went till Eachanari bypass before leaving the road. A senior forest department official said that every year elephants cross Coimbatore on their way to Sathyamangalam from Siruvani catchment area, Silent Valley and Mannarkad between October and January. He said that mushrooming of buildings outside the forest could be one of the reasons for the frequent entry of elephants into residential localities over the last few weeks. Forest department personnel said that equipped teams are on the move to check movement of the animals and to chase them into the forest.