Elephant From Chandaka Strolls Around Bhubaneswar; 2nd Incident In 12 Days

Bhubaneswar: A wild elephant sneaked into Chandaka area of Bhubaneswar, triggering panic among local residents. The proximity of the settlements to Chandaka Wildlife Sanctuary makes the area specifically vulnerable to wild lives straying into human habitats.

After straying into the Chandaka area late on Saturday night, the pachyderm caused damage to the perimeter walls and trees of quite a few houses. The animal even tried to force its trunk through the windows of houses, locals reported.

The locals have complained of the apathy and lackadaisical approach of the forest department officials in ensuring preventive measures in dealing with the situation.

Sighting of elephants and other wild lives near our houses is a commonly occurring event and puts our lives under threat, said the locals.

This was the second incident in a week of elephants straying into human habitats in the capital city.

It may be recalled that a herd of elephants had sneaked into Sikharchandi area and caused extensive damage to several structures and plantation in the third week of last month.

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.

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.