3 Elephants Stray Into Sikharchandi Area In Odisha Capital

Bhubaneswar: A herd of elephants sneaked into Sikharchandi area on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar and caused extensive damage to several structures and plantation, triggering panic among people.

According to sources, three elephants strayed into Ganesh Vihar area of Sikharchandi from Chandaka wildlife sanctuary through Bharatpur in the wee hours of Tuesday.

The animals roamed in the area for quite some time and caused damage to some houses and other structures before leaving, said local, adding that forest department were informed about the incident.

However, local residents claimed that the forest personnel failed to turn up as the non-gazetted employees of the department have launched an agitation across the state protesting the killing of a forester in Similipal recently.

This was the second incident of elephant straying into the city in the last three weeks. A tusker kept the forest department and police on their tenterhooks for over an hour on May 30 as it strayed into Maitri Vihar and Salia Sahi in the city.

The tusker which had strayed into the city from from Chandaka wildlife sanctuary through Bharatpur roamed in Maitri Vihar area for more than one hour before being shooed toward Salia Sahi slum by the panicked residents. It left the city after an hour of painstaking effort by the forest department officials and the police.

Earlier, four elephants had strayed into Sikharchandi hill, a popular hangout of people, on March 24 and then returned to the sanctuary on their own.

In November last year, a tusker crossed Sundarpada railway tracks and moved towards Pokhariput passing by the habitations close to the CM’s house in Palaspalli area.

Notably, trench dug up around Chandaka wildlife sanctuary to keep the elephants from entering the city has been filled up at many places. Even the boundary wall has been breached at some spot allowing the elephants to stray into Bhubaneswar.