Coimbatore: Drought in the forests of Coimbatore district is driving elephants into residential areas, as water sources in the forest have dried up due to monsoon failure.
Elephants’ movement has increased near the residential area of Madukkarai near here, even as the Forest department has issued a warning to residents against venturing out after dusk.
A herd of five elephants entered a private school at Madukkarai, breaking its gate. This was recorded on CCTV cameras fixed inside the school premises on Saturday.
Madukkarai is a thickly populated residential area, which shares boundaries with the Boluvampatti forest range. More than 7,000 families residing there have been spending sleepless nights due to straying wild pachyderms.
Due to monsoon failure last year, many small ponds inside the forest have dried up. The Forest department digs many bore-wells inside the forest and fills small ponds. But due to the drought, many bore-wells have also gone dry. “For the past 10 years, elephants have become a major source of concern,” said G. Bala, a resident of Arioli Nagar.
“Elephants have been camping in residential areas at night, but due to the drought, they have even started intruding in broad daylight into residential area. They are damaging compound walls and even houses. Over the last three years, elephants have killed four persons in the locality,” he said.
