A tusker from the Jawadhu Hills has been damaging mango groves and paddy and corn fields in the Alangayam Reserve Forest (RF), near Tirupattur, for around a week now.
Forest officials said the tusker had been separated from its herd many years ago. Since then, its movement had been restricted to the forest areas in Jamunamarathur along Jawadhu Hills. During the harvest season, elephants move along the corridor from Jamanamarathoor to Ambur, a distance of 52 km, navigating the thickly wooded forest areas.
An eight-member team, including three forest watchers, have been attempting to send the tusker back into the forest. However, its efforts have been unsuccessful so far. “The elephant has only one tusk since the other has fallen off due to old age. Except damaging crops cultivated in the fringe areas, it has not harmed anyone so far. However, we are trying to send it back to the forests,” said A. Somasundaram, forest range officer, Alangayam range.
Officials said Chennai-Bangalore Highway (NH 48), which was laid many years ago, had blocked the elephant corridor that extended from Jamanamarathoor Reserve Forest in the Jawadhu Hills to Kaundinya Sanctuary in Chittor, Andhra Pradesh. Before the completion of road work, many elephants migrated to the sanctuary but this particular one got acclimated to the weather conditions in the hills. As a result, it migrates within the region, especially during harvest season.
Unlike the other ranges, like Tirupattur, Natrampalli, Jolarpet and Kandali within the Tirupattur Forest Division, Alangayam has more than a dozen RFs with shola forests. The thickly wooded areas help the elephants migrate along the broken corridor without disturbance.
Mango trees, paddy, corn, banana, sugarcane and millets are cultivated in the agricultural lands in at least eight villages on fringes of the forest areas in Alangayam. As the mango season had started, the jumbo migrated from the hills to the RFs near Tirupattur, officials said.
