Farmers in Machampattu and Chinnavarigam in the Ambur region were a worried lot with herds of elephants visiting them for the fifth consecutive day on Friday and destroying crops of sugarcane, plantain, coconut and maize.
Villagers from Kottur, Mittaram, Bairapalli and Panangattur spent sleepless nights too, in constant fear.
The elephant invasion started on Monday at Melmachampattu and they caused damage to the crops in Palur and Bandarapalli villages. On Thursday, the herd came to Machampattu and razed down fencing along paddy fields and damaged water pipelines.
Efforts of Forest department officials in chasing them away to the forests have not been successful so far.
Vellore DC A. Shanmuga Sundaram, at the farmers meet, assured them of expediting the solar fence project to secure farmlands.
