The residents of O-Valley Forest Range in Gudalur Division staged a protest on Monday morning, after a herd of elephants raided a grocery store in the area on Sunday night and ate up most of the provisions.
Forest Department officials said that since it was the harvest season of jack fruits and mangoes in the region, elephants usually come to the area in search of food. Residents said that elephants had been straying into their settlements over the last two weeks and were raiding farms and destroying crops. As the elephants were frequently straying into Barwood Area, and especially the government higher secondary school nearby, the residents feared that the animals might put their children’s life at risk.
“We have demanded the Forest Department to come up with a permanent solution to the problem, either by relocating the elephants or by conducting operations to drive them away,” said S. Marimuthu, one of the protesters.
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The officials said that much of the O-Valley area lies in Section 17 lands, where non-forest related development works were prohibited.
“Most of the families living in this region are classified as ‘encroachers’ on forest land, and much of the O-Valley region remains a key corridor for the movement of elephants between Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka,” said a Forest official.
Forest staff and police personnel held talks with the protesters and assured them that a team would be formed and stationed in the area to drive away the animals if they come again.
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After a couple of hours of blocking the roads, the residents dispersed.