Youths annoy calm Padayappa, irritate other wild elephants also

MUNNAR: Some youths provoked the wild tusker Padayappa. The youths' tried to provoke the elephant, which arrived calmly at the Kundala estate. A video had surfaced with visuals of them distracting the elephant after making noise.

Apart from causing damage to crops and shops where it lands, Padayappa does not cause any harm to people. Padayappa came forward when the youths provoked him when walking in the estate. However, there are no visuals of the elephant attacking in the footages released. There are also reports of tourists annoying other wild elephants in the same way.

Padayappa who reached the second division of Silent Valley in Munnar last month had completely destroyed a ration shop. The plantation workers came to protect the ration shop when they came to know that the wild elephant had arrived in the nearby area of the estate. Padayappa had damaged the roof of the ration shop before that.

Even before this, Padayappa who reached the estate went back into the forest after eating the rice to be distributed to the plantation workers and the vegetables grown by the local residents. Meantime, the residents of the area demanded that the forest department should take action to prevent the destruction of the rice and other products that are to be distributed to the workers.