JOIN US A wild elephant has caused much damage to areca and banana plantations in Paravarakotya of Shiradi village on Wednesday night. Pepper, banana and areca crops of farmers E M Cyriac and P J Mathew have been destroyed. The elephant has damaged a pump house and pipes meant for irrigation.
Mathew said he was awakened at around 1 am, and by that the time the elephant had caused much damage to his plantation. The elephant was in the plantation till early morning.
Some truck drivers said they had frequently noticed tuskers crossing the national highway (NH 48) in the recent times.
An elephant calf had been found dead near Paravarakotya about 10 days ago.
The locals suspect that the present elephant might be the mother of the dead calf, and it might have been searching its calf.
However, the menace has caused a lot of apprehension among the locals.