Fears of man-animal conflict continue to haunt hills
The stray jumbos strolling along tea gardens in Kundhapalam near Ooty. (Photo: DC)
Ooty: A herd of seven wild elephants, including two calves, which strayed into Kundhapalam and surrounding areas near here, have begun to give sleepless nights to villagers. While the man-elephant conflict has become a regular phenomenon, especially over the last couple of years, the Kundahpalam area has been relatively free of stray elephant incidents in the past.
A forest team camping there is making efforts to chase the elephants, but the latter are playing hide and seek with the foresters. Forest sources said that generally wild elephants do not stray into the Manjoor and Kundah areas, which are in the upper reaches of the Geddai slopes.
This herd may have accidentally climbed up through the Denad slopes and entered the Kundah area in search of a route to move down, sources maintained. Though the stray elephant herd has not caused much damage to hill vegetable crops in the fields around, people are scared and want speedy action from the foresters to drive the herd back to the jungles.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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