CHENNAI: A herd of wild elephants damaged a Public Distribution System (PDS) shop in Iyerpadi Estate in Valparai on Monday night.

The elephants broke open the walls of a ration shop, pulled out rice bags and other essentials kept for distribution to people, and devoured them.

Following frequent intrusion of elephants targeting ration shops, the villagers have sought to replace the traditional brick and mortar buildings with strong container boxes, which could not be damaged by the elephants.

Already, container boxes have been placed in a couple of estates prone to elephant attacks in Thaimudi Estate and Muthumuni Estate.

Similarly, they sought to convert over 40 PDS shops into container shops in the Valparai Estate area. Several herds of elephants camping in Valparai have been targeting habitations over the last few days.