Three wild elephants which have been roaming near Valparai damaged a ration shop and two houses on Sunday night.
The Forest Department has deployed its frontline staff to drive out the elephants, a female and two calves, to the forest and avoid further damage to houses in the locality.
Forest officials said the elephants have been straying into human habitations at Ettiyar, which falls under Manombolly forest range of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, for the last several weeks.
On Sunday night, they broke the doors of a ration shop at Ettiyar and fed on rice kept in at least two gunny bags. The elephants were chased away before they started taking the remaining gunny bags. The same elephants also damaged the doors of two houses, possibly in their attempt to look for soft food items like rice.
Another herd of five elephants have been frequenting human habitations at Mudis. The frontline staff are conducting patrols to drive them back to forest.
Manomboly forest range officer A. Manikandan and his team are also giving alerts to residents in the two localities about the movement of elephants to avoid close encounters.
