Elephant destroys school compound wall

An elephant damaged the compound wall and sports equipment of a girls high school at Chinnathadagam on the outskirts today.
The elephant strayed from a hilly area around 4 AM and was proceeding towards the village when forest officials and villagers tried to scare it away.
Police said the pachyderm, however, turned towards the school damaging the compound wall and volleyball poles besides some sports equipment.
It then moved to a nearby vegetable stall and destroyed vegetables, particularly jackfruits, stored for sales today, police said.
Local body members inspected the area and assured the people that they would reconstruct the damaged property.

However, people claimed that such attacks by elephants, was continuing for the last few months and demanded that they be given permission to shoot the pachyderm with rubber bullets, by which at least they can scare them away, police said.