Erode: A wild elephant damaged a house in which jackfruits were stored at Kadambur near Sathyamangalam in the district in the early hours of Saturday.A forest department official said the house belonged to M Mahendran, 30, of Kadambur.
“A farmer, he had a house on his farm to store the harvested items and other things.
He had stored some jackfruits and small onions that he had harvested on Friday in the house.”A wild elephant got the smell of jackfruits and attempted to enter the house around 3am on Saturday.
“The elephant pulled the roof tiles down, damaged the side wall of the house and ate nearly 40 jackfruits,” Mahendran said.Mahendran and other farmers rushed to the spot and chased away the elephant after an hour’s struggling.
“We used tom-toms and burst firecrackers to chase the elephant away,” Mahendran said.He later alerted the forest department officials, who visited the house and assessed the loss.
“We will send the report to the higher officials and issue maximum of Rs 25,000 to the farmer,” said P Ganesh Pandian, forest ranger, (incharge) Sathyamangalam forest division.