Tusker runs amok on Coimbatore outskirts, foresters offer delayed assistance

COIMBATORE: A single male elephant damaged a hollow blocks-built compound wall on the outskirts of Coimbatore only to enter a farmland and ravage crops in the wee hours of Wednesday.

A lonely male elephant, which lost its family in a train mishap near Madukkarai, ten years ago, frequently enters human habitat villages close by Western Ghats in rural Coimbatore.

The single elephant has turned into a crop raider, which entered Pachapalli near Kovaipudhoor on the outskirts of Coimbatore early today.

After damaging the compound wall belong to a real estate owner, the elephant ravaged ten acres of tomato vegetation and damaged a maize farm too. The elephant pulled out the 40 stone pillars laid around a banana plantation. And remained there for quite a while.

Residents from the nearby press enclave rang up the Forest department, who did not respond till Wednesday evening. It has been a long time grievance of local farmers that Forest department personnel do not come out to help at the right time in such situations.