A herd of 50 to 55
elephants created panic near Hosur early Sunday morning, damaging nearly
100 tonnes of sugarcane. The crop was ready for harvest and
preparations were on to send the yield to the mills for crushing, when
the incident occurred.
V Jayaraman owns two acres in Nallaralapalli village near Hosur on which he had cultivated the cane. "The cane was all tied up stored in bundles in the field. We were waiting for the trucks to transport the crop to the sugar mills when the herd damaged the crop. The crop was worth Rs 3lakh," he said.
According to forest officials, the elephant herd had come from the Udedurgam Reserve Forests. This is the ninth instance of elephants straying into human settlements in the region in recent months," forest officials said.
There were totally 104 elephants that entered the Tamil Nadu forest area from Kolar Reserve Forest in Karnataka a few weeks ago. They managed to drive 40 elephants back to Karnataka by blasting crackers, said AK Ulaganathan, District Forest Officer (DFO) Krishnagiri district. "While a team of forest officials and employees were able to chase away a herd of 40 wild elephants from Sanamavu and Podur Pallam reserve forests adjoining the Chennai-Bangalore National Highway two days ago, another herd consisting of 20 elephants entered Podur Pallam in Sanamavu forest and damaged ragi, paddy crops and sugarcane in Jingiripalli and its surroundings," Ulaganathan said. The survey on crop damage would be conducted soon by the officials and compensation would be disbursed to the farmers, Ulaganathan added.
While forest officials say they are doing the best they can to curb the man-animal conflict, these incidents continue to happen with increasing frequency.
V Jayaraman owns two acres in Nallaralapalli village near Hosur on which he had cultivated the cane. "The cane was all tied up stored in bundles in the field. We were waiting for the trucks to transport the crop to the sugar mills when the herd damaged the crop. The crop was worth Rs 3lakh," he said.
According to forest officials, the elephant herd had come from the Udedurgam Reserve Forests. This is the ninth instance of elephants straying into human settlements in the region in recent months," forest officials said.
There were totally 104 elephants that entered the Tamil Nadu forest area from Kolar Reserve Forest in Karnataka a few weeks ago. They managed to drive 40 elephants back to Karnataka by blasting crackers, said AK Ulaganathan, District Forest Officer (DFO) Krishnagiri district. "While a team of forest officials and employees were able to chase away a herd of 40 wild elephants from Sanamavu and Podur Pallam reserve forests adjoining the Chennai-Bangalore National Highway two days ago, another herd consisting of 20 elephants entered Podur Pallam in Sanamavu forest and damaged ragi, paddy crops and sugarcane in Jingiripalli and its surroundings," Ulaganathan said. The survey on crop damage would be conducted soon by the officials and compensation would be disbursed to the farmers, Ulaganathan added.
While forest officials say they are doing the best they can to curb the man-animal conflict, these incidents continue to happen with increasing frequency.
