Munnar: Wild elephant menace has become severe in the plantation area in Munnar, Kerala.The wild elephant known as ‘Padayappa’ stormed into a ration shop in Kadalar, and ate rice and wheat. An elephant calf was also injured in Padayappa’s attack.
A herd of wild elephants damaged a temple door at Chokkanad Estate.
Tusker Padayappa damaged the ration shop owned by R Mahalakshmi in Kadalar Estate East Division around 1 am. It returned after feeding on two sacks of wheat and a sack of rice. The same ration shop was attacked by a wild elephant 5 months ago. Then, the elephant had eaten 14 sacks of rice and wheat.
The main door of Mariyamman temple in Vattakkad Division was damaged by a herd of 4 elephants, including 2 calves. Two herds of wild elephants including calves are found to be freely roaming around even during the daytime in the region.
On Monday early morning, elephants battled each other near the estate workers’ quarters (layam) in Kadalar Factory Division. In between this tusker fight, a calf was injured as it got stabbed by Padayappa. Blood was found on the path where the calf ran after being injured. However, it could not be found.