A group of four elephants, separated from their herd of eight, are hiding in a sugarcane field in a town in Mysuru district.

The elephants – three males and a female – took refuge in a sugarcane field near Iyengar Layout onn the outskirts of HD Kote town on Tuesday morning, after causing some damage to property in the area.

As they moved through the area, the tuskers damaged autorickshaws, bikes and banana plantations and other standing crops in their path. For some time, they loitered near the Taraka reservoir.

According to Mysuru Deputy Conservator of Forests, Karikalan, the elephants have taken refuge in the sugarcane field after being surrounded by curious local people who turned up at the area to watch.

“They are scared and are hiding in the sugarcane field. Around 100 forest department personnel have surrounded the elephants from three sides and we are prepared with crackers and drums (to turn them away from habited areas). When the crowd of people thins, we will try to drive them towards the forests,” Karikalan told The News Minute.

He told The Hindu that forest officials would drive them towards Boothanuru area, which is around 3.5 km away from where they were.

Karikalan says that on Sunday, eight elephants had made their way to the town around 4 am on Sunday morning. In the process of driving them back into the forests, four of them panicked due to the crowd of people surrounding them and ended up heading towards Iyengar Layout, which is around 20 km away from Sollepura forests. The other four eventually made their way back into Sollepura forests.