Elephants damage two houses near Coimbatore in less than two weeks

Wild elephants damage house in Coimbatore district, Forest Department diverts staff to prevent further damages.

Wild elephants have damaged one more house in Thadagam valley in Coimbatore district. Three elephants, including a calf, damaged the house of C. Nagarajan (70) in Dhaliyur, Pannimadai village in the valley, early on Tuesday, December 19, 2023.

The elephants entered a maize field adjacent to the house at around 1.45 a.m. They then approached the house around 2.45 a.m. before damaging the roof of a cow shed nearby.

“The elephants damaged the main door and a window. My parents, aunt and I were inside the house when the incident took place,” said N. Sudharshan, son of Mr. Nagarajan. According to him, he had alerted field staff of the Forest Department when the elephants entered the field. Had the staff come swiftly, the damage to the house could have been prevented, he said.

This is the second instance of wild elephants damaging houses in search of food in the valley in the recent past. On December 8, elephants pulled out a large window of a house at Thippanur and sneaked inside. The inmates had locked themselves inside a room.

With the annual migration season of elephants nearing its peak, the Coimbatore Forest Division is witnessing large-scale movement of the large herbivore. The division is located in the centre of the migration path between the Nilambur - Silent Valley – Coimbatore population range and the Brahmagiri – Nilgiris – Eastern Ghats elephant population range. Besides damaging crops, incidents of pachyderms damaging grocery stores and ration shops have also been reported.

Forest Department officials said that staff from forest ranges with low incidents of elephants entering human habitations are being diverted to ranges where crop and property damage is reported frequently.