Locals in the Karumalai estate area are in a state of panic after wild elephants broke into the house of a tea garden worker near Valparai and damaged it.
Coimbatore: Locals in the Karumalai estate area are in a state of panic after wild elephants broke into the house of a tea garden worker near Valparai and damaged it. With the movement of wild elephants on the rise in the estate areas across Valparai in Coimbatore district, tea estate workers have been unable to go to work as usual.
Six wild elephants that had camped in Karumalai estate area on Wednesday have once again forayed into residential area and raided banana trees. This has forced people in the area to stay indoors and emerge out of their homes only with utmost caution.
True to their fears that the elephants might leave forest cover again at night and enter residential areas, locals were in panic when three wild elephants emerged out of the forest area at around 4 am and entered their residential area.
The elephants damaged the window, door, walls and roof of the house of an estate worker, Sundaram.
Sundaram's wife, daughter and two children were reportedly sleeping in the house when they heard an elephant breaking the window of their house. The four inmates of the house immediately rushed to the neighbour's house through the back door of the house and sought protection.
Locals in the area were relieved only after the wild elephants went back to the forest cover after causing havoc for almost an hour in their settlements. The locals have demanded that the Forest Department should engage in intensive patrolling to prevent wild elephants from entering residential areas and causing damage to houses and shops.