Ooty: Situation tense as two stray tuskers intrude into village

Ooty: Two crop-raiding wild elephants which strayed into Thuneri village limits near here have begun to give sleepless nights to villagers for the past three days. Foresters here are trying to drive these elephants back into the jungles.

Elephants straying into Thuneri village down the Dodabetta slopes near here is not common. But villagers witnessed the movement of two stray elephants three days ago, along the far end of the village.

The elephants began to move towards the human settlements in the village vicinity, and then began to raid crops. Foresters formed a team and from Wednesday morning, they are trying to drive away the elephants, both tuskers, to the Sigur reserve forest in the foothills of Ebbanad village near Thuneri.

While the forest officials managed to chase the elephants down to the Siriyoor border after a marathon eight-hour exercise on Wednesday, a forest team is monitoring the situation along the jungle fringes around the periphery of the village.

Forest sources said that these elephants could have traveled up the hills till Thuneri from Siriyoor limits in the Sigur reserve forest area in the Mudumalai tiger reserve buffer zone limits.

They could have moved up in search of fodder and water as the woods in the MTR buffer zone limits are drying up due to continuing hot weather conditions there.