The farm land, spread across 35 acres, belongs to N Padmanaban, 60, a native of Karur district and resident of Chinnaiyagoundenpudur village for more than 25 years. He has more than 2,000 coconut trees in the farm land and resides in a farm house nearby with his wife P Arunlmangai, 55, and his mother Rajalakshmi, 90.
Aruchamy, 60, from Aliyar near Pollachi, was the caretaker of farm land, and resides in a small tiled roof house located inside the agricultural land where he had stored two bags of rice bran and PDS rice.
On Monday night, a herd of 17 elephants broke open the front door of his tiled roof house and attempted to reach the rice bags kept inside. Aruchamy immediately sought refuge on the tiled roof of his house, waiting for more than two hours there. Padmanaban and his family, meanwhile, moved to the first floor of their house to escape the elephants.
“I noticed the elephant herd at 12.30am on Thursday and alerted the neighbours over mobile phone. The elephants moved to the tiled house where Aruchamy was sleeping. He escaped miraculously, by taking refuge on the roof top of his house for more than two hours. Meanwhile, forest officials reached the spot and drove the elephants away by bursting crackers,” said Padmanaban.
The herd had consumed some rice stored inside Aruchamy’s house. They also damaged 30 coconut trees in the farm. When contacted, Madukkarai forest range officer M Senthilkumar said the elephant herd and a single tusker had been roaming in the area for more than one month.