Elephant eats rice bran with plastic bag near Coimbatore, coconut trees damaged

Male elephant breaks into village cattle shed, consumes rice and plastic; farmers fear wild encounters, criticize Forest Department's impractical instructions.

A male elephant barged into a cattle shed at a village near Thondamuthur in Coimbatore district on Saturday night, where it broke open a bag full of rice bran and consumed it along with the plastic material. A video of the incident was widely circulated on social media.

Forest Department officials said that two elephants entered the solar-fenced property at Kembanur by damaging the supporting iron poles, and proceeded to damage several young coconut trees in the property while searching for their tender and sweet stem.

The elephants also targeted the cattle shed attached to the farmer’s residence. The tusker opened the door of the store room attached to the cattle shed by piercing the tin sheet with its tusks and managed to pull out a plastic sack containing rice bran. The elephant broke open the bag and consumed the rice bran along with the plastic bag.

A farmers’ association representative said farmers were living in fear of encounters with wild elephants at night and damage to properties and crops.

“The Forest Department had instructed us not to store cattle feed, rice, etc., which attract elephants. Purchasing such items every day is impractical. Though the farmer at Kembanur kept the rice bran in a locked store room, the elephant managed to break it open. Farmers won’t be surprised if we are further criticised or vilified for keeping cattle feed in plastic gunny bags,” rued Mahalakshmi Manoharan, a farmers association leader from Kalayanur.