Ragi, horse gram crops attracted elephant herd

The herd entered Dharmapuri District last week and later driven back to forest area,

A herd of wild elephants, especially the lactating pachyderms, that entered Dharmapuri District last week and later driven back to forest area, were attracted by the ragi and horse gram crops.

The herd of 45 elephants from the forest area in Karnataka had at least 10 calves.

The jumbos, lactating elephants in particular, had selectively foraged the protein rich ragi and horsegram crops in several villages in Dharmapuri district, official sources here told PTI.

Elephants normally weigh around four to five tonnes and could easily consume about 250 kgs of green fodder everyday. They usually eat or forage for food for about 12-15 hours and walk about 10-15 miles.

According to Tamil Nadu government statistics, the area under ragi cultivation constitutes about 1.5 per cent of the total cropped area in the state. Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts alone had about 60 per cent of total Ragi crop in the State .

Similarly, Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts are the two important districts that cultivate horse gram in Tamil Nadu.