Wild elephants continued to stray into human settlements and wreaked havoc in many pockets of the high-range district of Idukki in Kerala on Saturday, January 28. In the early hours of Saturday, a herd of jumbos entered several estates and partially damaged a house at BL Ram village in Devikulam taluk, Forest Department officials said.
The elephants positioned themselves in one of the estates for hours on Friday, and Forest officials chased them away after repeated attempts. But the animals did not go back to the forests.
"The house was partially damaged. But no one suffered any injury. We drove the herd away from that estate yesterday, but the elephants are yet to return to the forests. We have limitations to drive them directly to forests," a Forest Department official told PTI.
The elephant herd's attack on the house came a day after a wild tusker known locally as 'Arikomban', which frequently strays into human settlements allegedly in search of grains, destroyed a ration shop in Panniyar Estate on Friday. 'Ari' means rice and 'komban' means tusker in local parlance. According to the official, the elephants destroyed a house in a nearby area on Friday.