Namakkal: Agriculture workers in Pilikalmedu area near Tiruchengode in Namakkal district have for the last five days been gripped by fear of an unidentified wild animal which some of them claimed to have spotted in a private farm.
This triggered an intense watch and search operation by the Forest department staff after some women farm hands working in a ‘kuchi kizhangu’ growing private farm reported that they had spotted a dark-looking wild animal with blood-red eyes and with fluffy hair.
The women workers, fearing it was a black bear, fled the place for safety. Few other agriculture workers drove away the unidentified animal with a log, but women workers are still reluctant to return to work in the field. After this incident, one Murugesan who came to irrigate the field also noticed a similar wild animal and raised an alarm, sources said.
Though some hoof marks were seen in the field, Namakkal forest department staffers have not subsequently sighted any wild animal in that area so far. Examining the footprints, they suspect it could be a ‘hyena’ which strayed into the field from nearby forest and may have returned. Still, women are afraid to return to farm work in the area and people demand firmer action by the forest department staff to trap the animal before it attacks any human being or cattle.
LEOPARD ATTACK:
In a related development on Monday night, 12 goats were mauled to death in a leopard attack in a private farm of one Ravi who rears goats at Vettuvanpudhur near Gobichettipalayam in Erode district. The leopard had even dragged one of the goats it killed into the nearby forest area, information reaching today said. T N Palayam forest ranger Manoj Kumar and others who rushed to the farm to inspect the damage, have now set up cameras to track and trap the carnivore.
ELEPHANT ELECTROCUTED:
In a third incident, a 20-year-old elephant died of high tension wire shock when it apparently stumbled on an electric fence put up by one farmer Rajendran to protect his crops from invasion by wild animals in Kadambur hill area near Sathyamangalam in Erode district on Wednesday.
The elephant was found dead near Rajendran’s field. After a spot post-mortem of the pachyderm by the forest veterinarian, the carcass was buried nearby and the farmer has since been arrested and remanded to judicial custody by a Sathy court, sources said.
