Wild tusker strays into Bhubaneswar again, residents panic

The residents of Maitri Vihar in Bhubaneswar were in a state of panic when a wild elephant strayed into the area on Sunday night.

As per reports, the tusker strayed into Bhubaneswar city from Chandaka sanctuary through Bharatpur.

Sources said that the wild elephant roamed in the area for more than one hour before the panicked residents shooed it toward Salia Sahi slum in Bhubaneswar.

After an hour of painstaking effort by the forest department officials and the police, the pachyderm finally left the city.

It is worthwhile to mention here that the trench dug up around Chandaka wildlife sanctuary to keep the elephants from entering Bhubaneswar has been filled up at many places. Even the boundary wall erected for the elephants has been broken at many places allowing the elephants passage to enter Bhubaneswar.

Cases of elephant incursions into Bhubaneswar have grown over the last few years. In November last year, a wild elephant was spotted roaming near the Lingaraj Temple area in Bhubaneswar.

Similarly, a herd of four elephants intruded into the Sikharchandi hills in Bhubaneswar on March 24 this year sending the local residents into panic.