Erode: Elephants fight over lorry load of sugarcane, stop traffic on highway

Erode: A fight between two elephants over a lorry load of sugarcane held up traffic on the Dindigul-Bengaluru highway for more than 25 minutes, forest officials said on Thursday. The incident happened at Karapallam near Hasanur in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve in Erode district on Wednesday night, the officials said.

According to the officials, the fight broke out after the driver of a lorry carrying sugarcane stopped upon seeing a female elephant with its calf on the side of the road. When the lorry stopped, the adult elephant went up to the vehicle, took some sugarcane and passed it on to its young one. Moments later, the tusker showed up and the two adult elephants began to fight over their share of the cane.

Seeing this, other motorists passing through stopped to watch the spectacle. This held up traffic. After 25 minutes or so, the three elephants slowly went their way and the vehicles on both sides of the national highway got cleared, the officials said.