Coimbatore: Take measures to curtail the wild elephant menace or we will shoot the animals down, a group of farmers told government officials in no uncertain terms on Monday.“We want the elephants out of the area. If they can’t be translocated, they should be put down,” a group of farmers, who turned up at the collectorate to attend the grievance meet, said.“If the forest department can not do it, farmers are willing to shoot the elephants and go to jail,” district secretary of the Tamil Nadu Vivaisagal Sangam P Kandasamy said.The farmers took the aggressive stance regarding the two wild elephants — Chinna Thambi and Vinayaka — who are raiding farms in the Thadagam Valley. It is the responsibility of the collectorate and the forest department to remove the elephants from the valley, they said.“It has been two weeks since the forest department promised to translocate the two elephants. They requested us to be patient, stating that they were waiting for a clearance from the principal chief conservator of forests and WWF consultant Ajay Desai’s report. Desai and the principal conservator analysed the situation last week. We want Desai’s report to be released by the forest department, so that we can take the next step,” the union leader said.The kumki (tamed) elephants deployed at Thadagam to ward off wild elephants have been unsuccessful so far, the protesters said. “Even with the kumkis in their midst, the wild elephants entered the villages. Due to the delay in taking a decision, they will continue to enter the villages and injure, scare or kill someone or destroy something,” Kandasamy said. “A forest department official reportedly threatened to kill the protesting farmers. We are willing to face that threat also.”The farmers took the aggressive stance following media reports of Desai recommending use of kumki elephants and anti poaching watchers to deter Vinayaka and Chinna Thambi rather than translocating them. Both the measures have been on trial for the last one month, but to no avail.

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