A lone tusker, which has been roaming the Madukkarai area for the last six months, broke down a school's compound wall early Tuesday morning.
The elephant managed to enter the village at least thrice on Monday night, according to forest rangers. However, since it was early in the morning, no untoward incidents were reported.
The tusker which entered the Presentation Convent Matriculation Higher Secondary School, on Madukkarai Road, while being chased by forest rangers, damaged a portion of the compound wall in an attempt to escape on Tuesday. The incident occurred at around 5.30 am, said forest rangers. "The tusker first tried entering the village at around 7.30pm. We managed to chase it back into the forest within half an hour and were standing guard along the forest fringes," said a local ranger.
The elephant entered Kurumbapalayam village, near Madukkarai, and damaged many fields, feeding off the crops. After a few banana plantation farmers found the elephant in their farms, they called the forest department, requesting them to chase the elephant away. "We burst crackers and managed to chase the elephant away," said a forest officer, C Dinesh Kumar.
It was only during the third raid that the elephant entered the school premises. "The elephant entered Madukkarai Road at around 5am. We began chasing it away before people woke up. When we were chasing it away, it ran into the school and broke the compound wall in an attempt to escape," said Kumar.
Forest officials insisted that there was no panic in the area because the locals were used to the lone elephant entering the village daily, some time after 6pm, and feeding off their crops.
The elephant managed to enter the village at least thrice on Monday night, according to forest rangers. However, since it was early in the morning, no untoward incidents were reported.
The tusker which entered the Presentation Convent Matriculation Higher Secondary School, on Madukkarai Road, while being chased by forest rangers, damaged a portion of the compound wall in an attempt to escape on Tuesday. The incident occurred at around 5.30 am, said forest rangers. "The tusker first tried entering the village at around 7.30pm. We managed to chase it back into the forest within half an hour and were standing guard along the forest fringes," said a local ranger.
The elephant entered Kurumbapalayam village, near Madukkarai, and damaged many fields, feeding off the crops. After a few banana plantation farmers found the elephant in their farms, they called the forest department, requesting them to chase the elephant away. "We burst crackers and managed to chase the elephant away," said a forest officer, C Dinesh Kumar.
It was only during the third raid that the elephant entered the school premises. "The elephant entered Madukkarai Road at around 5am. We began chasing it away before people woke up. When we were chasing it away, it ran into the school and broke the compound wall in an attempt to escape," said Kumar.
Forest officials insisted that there was no panic in the area because the locals were used to the lone elephant entering the village daily, some time after 6pm, and feeding off their crops.