Dharmapuri | A sugarcane plantation was burnt and damaged due to the blasts thrown by the forest department to relocate the elephants

Dharmapuri: Near Paparapatti in Dharmapuri district, the villagers staged a road blockade after the sugarcane plantation was burnt down by the explosives used by the forest department to make the elephant migrate into the forest.

For the past few months, elephants have been coming out of the forest and roaming in the farmlands in Bikili village next to Papparapatti in Bennagaram circle. The forest department forces them to migrate to the forest area through activities such as blasting. However, in a few days elephants again enter the farmlands and cause damage. In that line, on Wednesday evening, an elephant entered the sugarcane plantation of farmers Mathayan and Shivraj in Bikkili area next to Papbarpatti.

On getting information about this, the forest department went to the area and tried to make the elephants go into the forest by bursting firecrackers and throwing firecrackers. Unexpectedly, the blasts fell into the sugarcane plantation and set fire to the dry sugarcane stalks. A large part of the sugarcane plantation was burnt and damaged as the fire spread throughout the field. Enraged by this, the local people gathered in the area at night.

They staged a sit-in on the Bikili-Papparapatty road, alleging negligence of the forest department in not permanently preventing elephants from entering the farmlands and demanding compensation for the sugarcane fields damaged in the fire. At that time, they also seized the government city bus that was coming that way and started protesting. The forest, revenue and police officers who came to know about this went in person and held talks with the villagers who were on picket.

‘Tomorrow (16th) District Forest Officer and Palakodu DSP will come in person and hold talks regarding the incident of damage caused by sugarcane field fire accident. Then, farmers and villagers can express their grievances to them. Abandon the road blockade until then,’ they insisted.

The villagers temporarily abandoned the road blockade and dispersed. It is noteworthy that traffic in the area was affected for more than 1 hour due to this road blockade. Due to these incidents, there was a lot of excitement in the area from this evening till night.