After a lull of a few weeks, the farmers of half a dozen villages in Gudupalle mandal of Kuppam constituency are once again caught in the grip of fear with wild elephants returning to their fields.
The farmers of M. Kothur and Sanganapalle villages, bordering with Vepanapalle and Maharaja Kadai reserve forest towards Tamil Nadu said that an elephant herd rampaged a 12-acre stretch of standing tomato crop in the early hours of Wednesday, and kept the inhabitants of the forest fringe areas at bay.
It may be noted here that wild elephants kept raiding the standing crops in Gudupalle and Kuppam mandals in from November last year till January mid this year.
The forest officials heaved a sigh of relief following the long absence of wild elephants in the zone later.
However, since a couple of weeks, the farmers of Kuppam area have started sighting the wild animals, which are said to be coming closer to agriculture fields finding the water sources drying up in the forests.
