Dairy farmers at Thadagam Valley in Coimbatore live in fear as wild elephants develop a taste for cattle feed

Farmers in Coimbatore's Thadagam Valley fear wild elephants raiding houses for rice bran and oil cake. Elephants have damaged buildings to steal these items, causing distress to dairy farmers. Forest Dept. has Boundary Night Patrol Teams to drive away elephants.

Farmers from villages in Thadagam Valley in Coimbatore district are spending sleepless nights, because wild elephants that frequent these places have developed a taste for items other than crops and ration rice. According to them, the pachyderms are now raiding houses and shed for rice bran and oil cake that are used as cattle feed.

A tusker damaged the tiled roof of a house at Kalayanur village on the night of October 4 and pulled out a gunny bag of oil cake and ate half of it. On the same night, an elephant raided rice bran and oil cake stored by another farmer in the nearby Somayanur.

“Earlier we used to be afraid of crop raiding by wild elephants. Now the elephants have developed a taste for cattle feed. Dairy farmers are afraid of storing them in houses and sheds as elephants are damaging the building to steal them,” said Mahalakshmi Manoharan, a farmer from Kalayanur.

Dairy farmers normally buy oil cake and rice bran in sacks above 50 kg as and when they get the monthly payment for the milk. While a sack of oil cake costs around ₹2,300, rice bran is sold for around ₹1,400.

“The Forest Department is advising us not to keep things that attract elephants. But it is difficult and inconvenient to buy cattle feed for a day or two,” she said.

S.P. Ramesh, another farmer, said the elephants looking for rice bran, oil cake and other cattle feed is a worrying trend. Though lights are kept on around houses in the region, they do not discourage elephants from looking for their favourite food.

Ms. Manoharan added that elephants broke the shutters of a bakery on the busy Coimbatore - Anaikatti Road at Anuvavi temple junction in the early hours of October 3 and ate items such as biscuits, breads and other bakery products.