Baripada: An elephant created panic by attacking the vehicles on National Highway (NH) 49 in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district on Sunday.
According to sources, a herd of elephants from neighbouring Jharkhand moved to the areas by crossing the NH a few days back. The villagers, who are in a panic, have been trying to drive away the herd and have informed the Forest officials.
On Sunday, a tusker strayed away from the herd and came to the NH at Dwarasuni ghat in the district. Apparently disturbed by the sound of vehicles and horns, he turned violent and started chasing them.
It also attacked two buses coming from Baripada. Though the buses were damaged, the passengers escaped without any major injury in the attack.
As movement of the vehicular traffic on the Highway came to a halt, Forest officials went to the spot and drove the elephant away. The vehicles started moving after the normalcy was restored.