Farmers of Palacode in Tamil Nadu’s Dharmapuri district are protesting against the heavy crop losses they are subjected to by a single wild elephant, which has recently killed a domestic cow also.
Forest Department sources said that they were closely monitoring the elephant and will take action if necessary.
According to Palacode farmer Balamurugan, the elephant has trampled around an acre of his farm land and destroyed paddy crops that were about to be harvested.
The elephant, according to farmers, was staying close to human habitation in the forest area for the past two months since January 2023 and a ‘Makhna’ was also along with him. However Forest Department officials have tranquilized and darted the Makhna and relocated it but the single elephant is still adjacent to Palacode village and destroying paddy and even banana plantations.
Murugan. M, a farmer who has banana plantations, told IANS that he is not able to sleep and was staying awake to ward off the elephant from his land.
The Forest Department, however, said that as of now the elephant is not a problematic elephant and the death of the cow happened inadvertently. While farmers don’t have any issue about herds of elephant coming near the farm land, the single elephants and Makhna’s are dangerous as they would destroy the crops and attack human beings.
