A full-grown male elephant, which got separated from the three-member “bachelor’s group” last month, has been creating a flutter, raiding mango orchards and vegetable plantations in several villages alongside the Chennai National Highway in Narayanavanam mandal, 80 km from here.
According to information, the lone elephant, which is currently on the prowl between Govindappa Naidu Kandriga village and the waterfalls at Kailasanatha Kona, is frequenting the mango orchards. From Friday night till early hours of Saturday, the pachyderm had a free run in the fields, and reportedly tried to attack a farmer, who luckily escaped.
The villagers say the presence of a wild elephant was a strange in Narayanavanam mandal as the terrain’s poor forest cover would not support the fodder for the animal.
They said that after a three-member herd of wild elephants from Tamil Nadu marched its way to the plain areas four months ago, the forest officials had not initiated any concrete steps to drive away the animals back into their original habitat in Tamil Nadu. They said that except for temporarily driving away the animals into the hillocks with poor vegetation, the forest personnel had not found a permanent solution to the menace.
“Due to the ongoinsg COVID lockdown, the movement of public is considerably thin in the area. Once the lockdown is over, the presence of the lone elephant would surely turn into a bigger problem,” a forest watcher said.