Coimbatore: Hungry elephants damaged a ration shop, a temple and houses of tea estate laborers in Valparai on Sunday night.
A herd of six pachyderms, including a calf entered the Kuranagumudi estate late on Sunday night. The herd broke the doors and windows of the quarters of the tea estate laborers. When they could not get anything to eat, the herd moved towards the Sajitha plantation tea estate close to Solayar dam.
The herd then broke into the ration shop of the Solayar dam and ate more than 400 kg of rice and 200 kg of daal. The herd also broke the compound wall of a temple. Then the herd broke the doors of the Sajitha plantation estate office, the backyard door of estate manager Philip, where they ate salt and rice.
Hearing the sound of elephants trumpeting, Philip along with his wife hid under the cot. He rang up the Forest department and neighbors. From there the herd moved to the laborers’ quarters, broke the doors and windows of the houses of laborers Revathi, Muniyandi, Chinnappan, and Kumar.
The workers united to make sounds banging vessels and chased away the herd at around 3 am in the morning. Forest department officials arrived at the spot on Monday at 6 am, the laborers vexed at their late arrival.
