CHENNAI: A herd of elephants entered agricultural lands in Thattimanapalli village near Gudiyatham forest reserve in Vellore at midnight on Monday and ruined several crops, as reported by Daily Thanthi.

The elephants entered the fields between midnight and the wee hours of Tuesday, leaving behind a trail of damage.

On Sunday night too, an elephant strayed into a field near Paradarami village and destroyed a large number of crops. It was later driven away by the irate villagers, the report added.

These back-to-back nocturnal elephant intrusions have severely upset the locals who have informed the Forest Department about the damage they caused and requested that the animals be sent back into the forest.

However, even after receiving the complaints, the officials from the Forest Department reportedly did not arrive until 4 pm on Monday. Following this, the affected farmers declared that they would take the matter to the district collector.

They have also urged officials to provide immediate compensation for the destroyed crops.