It took seven months for farmer S. Ramalingam to raise his banana plantation of nendran variety at Somayanur in Coimbatore district to the fruiting stage. With three more months left for harvest, the farmer lost 150 banana trees when a herd of elephants spent around one-and-a-half-hours in his plantation on the intervening nights of Saturday and Sunday. This is the plight of hundreds of farmers in Coimbatore district who are cultivating in villages bordering forests.
As the annual migration movement is high from November to February, incidents of pachyderms entering farms and feeding on crops is relatively high in these months, according to Forest Department officials.
“A herd of seven elephants entered the farm around midnight. They damaged 150 banana trees before leaving the plot by 1.30 a.m.”, said Mr. Ramalingam’s son R. Vijayakumar.
According to him, elephants break the trees and eat the tender stem. They do not prefer remaining parts of the trees, including leaves and unripe bananas, which cannot be sold.
“The movement of elephants in farms, especially in villages in the Thadagam Valley, have increased in the past few weeks. They come in large numbers and destroy crops,” said R. Manoharan, Coimbatore district president of the Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam led by T. Venugopal.
He alleged that officials from the Agriculture Department fixed ₹300 as the value of a damaged banana tree. However, the Forest Department was paying only ₹100 a tree. Even the ₹300 fixed by the Agriculture Department itself was far below the market value if an average rate of ₹30 per kg was calculated, he said.
According to Forest Department officials, Coimbatore Forest Division is located in the centre of the migration path between the Nilambur - Silent Valley – Coimbatore population range and the Brahmagiri – Nilgiris – Eastern Ghats elephant population range. Various factors, including lack of palatable fodder and water in forests, force elephants on migration movement to enter villages in search of alternatives.
N. Jayaraj, District Forest Officer, Coimbatore Forest Division, said the Forest Department staff inspected the farm where 150 banana trees were damaged and assured the owner of timely disbursal of compensation.
