Ooty: Two deaths due to wild elephant attack in Gudalur limits over just a
week, including the one on Wednesday night, triggered public unrest and tension on the Nilgiris border areas. People staged a road roko that paralysed vehicular traffic for several hours on Thursday.
While a wild elephant had struck in the Aamaikulam area in Gudalur and
killed an elderly woman last Thursday, again yesterday in nearby Padanthurai limits, another jumbo attacked and trampled Ramesh (28), a farmer hailing from Pandathurai limits.
Angered by the sudden upswing in the man-elephant conflict in Gudalur
limits, which also witnessed a wild elephant straying into the Chalivayal area in Gudalur and raiding crops last Friday, residents of Padanthurai village and nearby areas staged a road roko on the busy Gudalur-Sulthan Bathery (Kerala) road on Thursday morning, paralysing inter-state vehicular traffic.
The agitating village residents there demanded an effective plan of action to manage the man-animal conflicts and digging of ‘elephant-proof trenches’ in all points in the forested village limits.
The villagers, who are visibly panic-stricken due to the wild elephant scare, also demanded speedy action to erect solar-powered fences in the village limits in the jungle fringes to check straying of wild elephants into human settlements there.
Higher Forest and Revenue officials rushed to the spot and tried to pacify the agitating villagers. They promised to take action on the demands put forth by villagers, upon which the latter withdrew their stir.
