Wild elephants damage vermicelli unit near Coimbatore

Wild elephants damage vermicelli company in Kalayanur, Coimbatore; causing damages of ₹75,000 and eating 10 kg of ragi vermicelli.

Wild elephants damaged a vermicelli manufacturing unit at Kalayanur near Coimbatore in the early hours of Friday. The elephants also ate around 10 kg of vermicelli made of ragi before leaving the spot.

The elephants caused the damage at Dharani’s Food Products, a three-month-old company run by Saranya Senthil Kumar. The unit is located around 100 m away from her residence at Kalayanur. Three elephants approached the building around 12.30 a.m., after damaging its gate.

“They knocked down the rolling shutter and pulled out vermicelli packets that were kept for display through the gap. A table on which computer, printer and office articles were kept was pushed down. They also took out a bucket in which broken pieces of vermicelli were kept. A window on the rear side of the building was also damaged,” she said.

Ms. Saranya said that the elephants caused damage to the tune of about ₹ 75,000.

The plastic packets of vermicelli were not seen around the premises of the company when Ms. Saranya and her husband searched the place in the morning.

Mahalakshmi Manoharan, a farmer from Kalayanur, said that elephants targeting houses, bakeries, ration shops and other establishments was a worrying trend.