Four forest teams comprising range officers and foresters have been monitoring the movement of a herd of 13 elephants including four infants camping in Panamdangi Reserve Forest (RF) near Katpadi in Vellore on the Tamil Nadu- Andhra Pradesh border on Saturday.
The drive comes in the wake of a herd of elephants reportedly destroying large tracts of farmlands, mostly banana and coconut groves, in areas like Rajiv Gandhi Nagar and Indira Nagar near Panamadangi RF, that comes under Katpadi forest range for the past few days. “Once in a year, herds of elephants migrate from Kaundinya wildlife sanctuary in A.P to forest areas near Katpadi, mainly for food. Efforts have been taken to restrict the herd’s movement in Chittapara forests in Chittoor district of A.P,” T.K. Ashok Kumar, District Forest Officer (DFO), Vellore Division, told The Hindu.
Along with forest officials and police, A.S. Marimuthu, Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) and Mr. Kumar inspected the crop raid by the herd of elephants in affected areas. The herd of elephants have camped in Sorakalpattu, Thondanthulasi, and Pallakollai villages that come under Katpadi forest range since January 4.
The herd damaged banana crops and coconut groves in these villages before they were chased away deep into the forests. “Approximately one acre of banana plantation was completely destroyed by elephants, which raided during nighttime. Apart from providing timely adequate compensation, the district administration should take steps to prevent such crop raids by elephants,” said B. Sokkan, a farmer.
