15 elephants sighted in Karakambadi forest

Tirupati: A herd of 15 wild elephants was spotted in the Karakambadi forest, 20-25 km away from the pilgrim city. Labourers engaged in the construction of Balaji reservoir in the forest area on Tuesday were jolted with fear on noticing the jumbos moving around ran for safety.

They alerted the forest officials on the unexpected movement of elephants in the Karakambadi forest of Mamandur range. Forest officials view that the sudden appearance of jumbos in Kuppam area could be on account of searching for the fodder or while moving back to their original habitations.

They said that the presence of elephants in winter season is a rare phenomenon and attributed it to plush greenery. Compared to the western part, Kuppam and Palamaner areas are more thickly covered with greenery felt the forest department officials.

“It seems the wild elephants while searching for food and water drifted into the east side forest area from the west side”, said the Tirupati wildlife division forest officials who are monitoring the elephant movement in the Mamanduru forest area.