COIMBATORE: Traffic on the Kotagiri-Mettupalayam road was disrupted for a while on Tuesday night after a wild elephant blocked a goods carrier vehicle and searched for food items.
On spotting the elephant standing in the middle of the road, the goods carrier vehicle was halted by its driver at a safe distance. However, unexpectedly the elephant approached the vehicle, while the scared driver got off and ran away to safety.
The elephant then pulled out the goods in a desperate search for food items, however, left disappointed unable to find anything for consumption.
It then retreated into the forest area. By then, vehicles queued up on the road stretch resulting in a traffic snarl.
In Coimbatore, a herd of elephants ventured into a plantain farm and destroyed more than 1000 standing crops at Varapalayam on Wednesday early morning.
The herd, comprising around eight elephants, intruded into the farm owned by Gunasekar located more than a kilometer from the reserve forest.
“On hearing the loud trumpeting of elephants, we managed to drive them away by firing crackers in the early morning hours,” said Gunasekar.
The forest department is likely to compensate for the loss of plantains. Meanwhile, the forest department has appealed to the devotees to be cautious as two elephants were spotted along the footsteps of Maruthamalai temple in the early morning.
In another incident, two staff of the forest department sustained minor injuries after their vehicle overturned during a elephant driving operation near Alandurai.