Forest officials drove away two elephants, which entered a house at Theerthipalayam area in Perur last night, into the forests.

According to Madukkarai Forest Officer S. Kannan, the mother elephant and its calf gatecrashed into the house of one Shanmugam and ate away the fodder kept for poultry.

On information, Forest Guard Ellappan and anti-poaching watchers rushed to Shanmugam’s house and drove the elephants into the forests after an hour’s struggle. They had to fire crackers to drive them out, Kannan said.

On the frequent man-animal conflict, Kannan said the Revenue Department was issuing pattas to the lands that border the forest area.

“There is something called ‘buffer zone’ in the forest. That is 40-60 m area along the forest boundary is used for conducting welfare programmes and other department related activities. With the pattas being issued, it has become a big problem. The farmers are trying to make use of the forest land, that is fertile, to grown commercial crops.

Once the elephants get the taste of agricultural crops, the refuse to eat the food they get in forests. So they start entering residential areas looking for crops,” he added.

On the other hand, Shanmugan is not bothered about the damages done by the elephants, but is worried that they had consumed plastic along with the fodder.