Tuskers have a field day in banana farms

Tirupati: Panic struck yet again at the villages bordering the forests in the Kuppam constituency as wild elephants went on a rampage in farmlands and destroyed crops in the early hours on Monday.

The frequent visitors who have already spread enough panic among the farmers and villagers living on the fringe villages close to the forest areas were once again terrorised by marauding tuskers which trampled the crops yet again.

According to information, a small herd of tuskers crossed over to the Singarapuram village in Mallanoor panchayat of Kuppam constituency in the early hours of Monday and damaged banana, paddy and coconut crops and trees at the village.

The farmlands of a farmer B. Muniraju bore the maximum brunt as the tuskers went on a rampage in the latest attacks in the Kuppam constituency.

Kuppam - the constituency represented by Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has been witnessing frequent attacks by the tuskers as each time the so called fool-proof measures initiated by the district forest wing has been falling short, causing maximum crop loss to the farmers who are already facing the vagaries of monsoon.

According to the official records, the forest department has already paid a crop compensation of Rs 12 lakh towards the crop losses incurred by the farmers on account of elephant attacks so far and another sum of Rs 15 lakh is to be disbursed by the forest department to the farmers by the end of this month.

While compensating the farmers at loss owing to the frequent tuskers’ attacks is alright, the locals and the farmers have been pleading with the forest officials to rope in long term measures to prevent the attacks in the first place, but unfortunately the pleas of the farming community back in the Kuppam has been falling only on deaf ears over the past decade and half.