Two farmers critically hurt in Chittoor elephant attack

Panic gripped a number of villages of Puttur, Narayanavanam, Karveti Nagaram and Vadamalapeta mandals in Chittoor district after two farmers had been critically injured in an attack by two wild elephants in the fields of Lakshmipuram ST Colony on the Narayanavanam foothills, 15 km from Puttur, in the early hours of Tuesday.

A herd of three elephants, identified regionally because the ‘Bachelor’s Group’, had strayed into the Nagari plains in early January after leaving their habitat on the Pernambut forests of Tamil Nadu, 150 km from Puttur. On February 8, one of many three pachyderms obtained separated from the group and was roaming in Karveti Nagaram, Puttur and Nagari mandals, whereas the 2 elephants had confined their actions between the Narayanavanam hills and Kailasanatha Kona, often crossing the Puttur-Chennai nationwide freeway.

Forest Range Officer (Puttur) K. Subrahmanyam advised The Puucho that the herd had emerged into the hilly terrain of Narayanavanam mandal on the night time of February 8. “Since then, we are frantically on the trail of the two elephants, while the elusive one has left into Karveti Nagaram range. The hilly terrain makes tracking difficult. The two are raiding paddy and sugarcane fields and retiring into the hillocks at night,” the FRO mentioned.

“On the night of February 15, our personnel along with elephant trackers were camping atop a mound, and blasting crackers to prevent the two jumbos from entering the fields below. However, the duo took a detour and entered the fields. From midnight till the early hours of Tuesday, the jumbos devoured the crops in a vast stretch. While returning to the hills, the duo came across two farmers while working at a pumpset. Despite our personnel’s efforts to divert their attention, one of the jumbos caught hold of a 60-year-old farmer named Subramanyam by its trunk. After spinning him in the air, the farmer was flung to a distance. Another farmer named Subbarayalu (45) was pushed to the ground by another elephant. After trampling his chest, the elephant twisted him to the other side, and stomped on his spine. The farmer’s ribs and spinal cord were broken. Both were rushed to hospitals in Tirupati. The forest department will bear the entire medical expenditure,” the FRO mentioned.

Meanwhile, the motion of the jumbos criss-crossing the Chennai NH and nearer to Kailasanatha Kona waterfalls has develop into an enormous fear for forest officers as a consequence of heavy public motion. Moreover, the presence of a lone elephant, after it was separated from the herd, has solely heightened the strain in the Nagari plains, the place jumbo motion was exceptional up to now.