A wild tusker, locally known as Padayappa, entered the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) bungalow area at Devikulam near Munnar on Thursday morning.
According to local people, the tusker reached the area around 6.30 a.m. The tusker entered the Kochi-Dhanuskodi National Highway at Devikulam and disrupted the traffic for a while. The tusker then crossed the road and moved to the sub-collector bungalow area and later to the forest area.
The tusker had destroyed a cattle shed at Lockhart estate near Devikulam on Tuesday night. Local people said that the tusker had been roaming the Lockhart estate area of Devikulam for the past one month and frequented human habitations.
Munnar Assistant Conservator of Forests(ACF) Job J. Neriamparambil said that a Forests department team is closely monitoring the movement of the tusker. “The Forests department had already collected the mobile phone numbers of the local people in Munnar and Devikulam and has been sending a warning alert message to these numbers at 9 a.m. for a few days now” he said.
“The monitoring watchers will update the Forests department about the roaming area of the wild elephants in Munnar, including Padayappa, every morning who in turn will notify the people. Through these messages people will be aware of the presence of wild elephants in major areas of Munnar,” said Mr. Neriamparambil.
Forests department officials said that Padayappa is roaming in the Devikulam area after a gap of two months. For the past two months, the tusker was camping at the Thalayar area of the Munnar-Marayur interstate route.
Tusker Padayappa is familiar figure in the Munnar region. The tusker is often seen on the roadside and at times visits the local food joints and takes away food without causing much damage to the shops.
