Elephant scare at many temples in Coimbatore, Erode

COIMBATORE: Devotees were briefly barred from visiting Lord Murugan temple located on a small hillock in Gobichettipalayam near Erode after a wild elephant made its way to the temple on Wednesday.

The elephant, which came out of TN Palayam forest area on Tuesday night, entered into a plantain farm in Kumaran Karadu. It then climbed the hillock to reach the temple in the early morning hours, when there were no devotees.

On receiving information, a team led by Kulal Yogesh Vilas, District Forest Officer (DFO), Sathyamangalam Division turned up to monitor the elephant. As a large number of villagers gathered at the foothills to have a glimpse of the elephant, the police had a tough time regulating the crowd by making continuous announcements.

Power supply was suspended in the locality when the elephant was atop the hills as a precaution to prevent any untoward incident. After a while, the elephant got down on its own, crossed Gobichettipalayam-Sathyamangalam Road to reach Thadapalli canal, where it took a cool bath, before retreating into the forest area around afternoon.

Traffic was disrupted on the Gobichettipalayam- Sathyamangalam Road for a while, when the elephant crossed the stretch.

Ex-AIADMK MLA KA Sengottaiyan visited the spot and urged the forest department to maintain a vigil and ensure safety of the people. In another similar incident, two wild elephants stood on the step way of Marudamalai temple triggering panic moments for devotees.

The forest department staff drove away the wild elephant into the forest area by firing crackers, after which the devotees were allowed to go by the way.