Forest teams monitor movement of elephants in Vellore

Four forest teams comprising range officers and foresters have been monitoring the movement of a herd of 13 elephants including four infants camping in Panamdangi Reserve Forest (RF) near Katpadi in Vellore on the Tamil Nadu- Andhra Pradesh border on Saturday.

The drive comes in the wake of a herd of elephants reportedly destroying large tracts of farmlands, mostly banana and coconut groves, in areas like Rajiv Gandhi Nagar and Indira Nagar near Panamadangi RF, that comes under Katpadi forest range for the past few days. “Once in a year, herds of elephants migrate from Kaundinya wildlife sanctuary in A.P to forest areas near Katpadi, mainly for food. Efforts have been taken to restrict the herd’s movement in Chittapara forests in Chittoor district of A.P,” T.K. Ashok Kumar, District Forest Officer (DFO), Vellore Division, told The Hindu.

Along with forest officials and police, A.S. Marimuthu, Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) and Mr. Kumar inspected the crop raid by the herd of elephants in affected areas. The herd of elephants have camped in Sorakalpattu, Thondanthulasi, and Pallakollai villages that come under Katpadi forest range since January 4.

The herd damaged banana crops and coconut groves in these villages before they were chased away deep into the forests. “Approximately one acre of banana plantation was completely destroyed by elephants, which raided during nighttime. Apart from providing timely adequate compensation, the district administration should take steps to prevent such crop raids by elephants,” said B. Sokkan, a farmer.

In coordination with forest officials, Collector V.R. Subbulaxmi reviewed the steps taken to prevent such crop raids by the herd. She also directed forest officials to use drones to track the movement of elephants in the forests as it would help them take steps to restrict its movements within the forests.

Forest officials said that forest ranges like Pernambut, Gudiyatham, and Katpadi are located along the T.N-A.P border. Around 15,000 hectares of forests come under these ranges. Most of the elephants that migrate into these forest areas are from Kaundinya sanctuary. Such migration happens during the months of January - February.

Along with local residents and the police, forest officials have been patrolling remote villages on the fringes of forests along the border to prevent elephants from venturing into habitation areas in the coming days. At present, there is no loss of human lives in the identified affected villages where crops have been damaged, forest officials said.