Coimbatore: A stray elephant roaming in Madukarai created havoc on Thursday night, entering a 17-acre land and destroying 200 banana plants. The caretaker of the land and his family approached the district collectorate for help.Meanwhile, at the farmers’ grievance meet held on Friday, participants said they had been complaining about the elephant destroying their farm land for the past six months but no action has been taken.Farmers from Madukarai taluk, who came for the farmers’ grievance meeting at the collectorate, said that the lone elephant roaming the area for a few months now, has become more ferocious.”The rogue elephant enters the village daily at around 5.30pm and remains in the area until dawn, feeding on our crops,” said A Balasubramaniam, district president, Farmers Association.On Thursday night, the elephant reportedly entered a 17-acre farm, taken care of by Saravanan G and his family. “The elephant came in at around midnight and stayed till 5am.
It not only damages the crops but also creates fear and havoc in the locality. My wife steps out early morning to pluck flowers and draw kolam,” he said.The farmers say the district collectorate had informed the forest department and asked them to take action but nothing has been done yet.”Four months ago, the department promised to tranquilize the elephant and shift it to another forest but claimed the forest veterinarian was unwell,” said the district secretary of the Farmers Asssociation, A Kandasamy.”Then, they claimed that they did not have a district forest officer to authorize the action. Now we know that the veterinarian was available at the elephant rejuvenation camp and a DFO-in-charge has been appointed,” he said.Because of the scare, several milk men don’t service the locality, fearing an attack.