A herd of elephants that entered a sugarcane field in Sivagiri has extensively damaged the crop, much to the agony of the growers.

As the farmers have cultivated sugarcane in the lands under Chinna Avudaiperi tank in Sivaigiri, the elephant herd coming out of the reserve forest in the Western Ghats in search of food and water entered these fields and inflicedt severe damage to the standing crop on Wednesday night.

The elephant herd has caused crop loss of ₹1 lakh to farmer Prabhakaran of Thalavaipuram in Virudhunagar district as the sugarcane raised on 1.50 acre was destroyed. Revenue and Agriculture Department officials are likely to survey the damaged fields in the days to come to assess the crop damage and give due compensation to the grower.