Forest Staff Bid To Drive Away Tusker From OUAT Farm

Bhubaneswar: Efforts are on by the forest staff to drive away a wild tusker from the Horticulture farm of the Odisha University of Agriculture Technology (OUAT) near Ghatikia in the city.

Sources said a wild tusker from Chandaka Elephant Sanctuary barged into the OUAT Horticulture farm premises in the early morning hours on Thursday after breaking the main gate of the farm.

Panic gripped the area after some locals found the tusker inside the farm. Following information, OUAT staff and Forest officials rushed to the spot.

Talking to media persons, Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF), Chandaka-Dampara Wildlife Sanctuary, Himansu Sekhar Mohanty said the tusker is now inside our research garden of the farm which is a vast forest area.

Referring to the steps taken to drive away the tusker, he said the elephants usually do not move during daytime. They move during the day only due to public disturbance. “Taking this into consideration, we have presently kept the tusker inside the silviculture farm. We will drive it away from the farm in the evening so that it would not do any harm to the life and property of the people of this locality,” Mohanty added.

To keep an eye on the movement of the tusker, 12 Forest Guards have been deployed inside the farm.

Sources in the Forest Department said that this stray tusker has earlier barged into human habitations adjacent to Chandaka Sanctuary in the last 3-4 days.