After a three-day long operation, forest officials on Sunday night succeeded in driving a 13-member herd of wild elephants back into the forests of Palamaner range from Bangaru Tiruttani hillock in Somala mandal, where they had been sheltering since a month.
The herd, said to be from the forests of Tamil Nadu, had crossed into Chittoor district at Kuppam and later moved towards Palamaner range, before finally entering the Punganur range. They had reportedly passed through several forest-fringe villages in the three mandals in their month-long sojourn, giving tense moments to the farmers. The herd kept raiding the seasonal crops at the villages of Nadimpalle, Somala, Karakamanda, Chinna Somala and Mundrivaripalle at nights and returning to the hillock before dawn.
Farmers’ loss
Several farmers in Sadum and Somala mandals complained to the officials about huge loss to their standing crops of banana, tomato and mango trees. At several villages, the farmers had maintained campfires to keep the elephants at bay.
The forest officials, however, heaved a sigh of relief as no major problem ensued due to the movement of the pachyderms close to Punganur-Tirupati highway.
Divisional Forest Officer (Chittoor West) S. Ravi Shankar confirmed that a 13-member herd had crossed into Chittoor district from Tamil Nadu. “After much effort, we made the herd retreat towards Palamaner, and expect them to cross into TN in a few days. Several herds are crisscrossing the forest terrain at the tri-State junction, covering a vast corridor from Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu to Bannerghat in Karnataka and as far as Kuppam and Seshachalam in Chittoor district. Our personnel are constantly on the move to prevent man-animal conflict at the forest fringe areas,” the DFO said.
