Boudh: A herd of three tuskers disrupted vehicular movement on the Khurda-Bolangir National Highway-157 while they were crossing the road near here Monday.
Panic gripped the commuters as the pachyderms stood on the NH for quite some time. Earlier, the herd had strayed into Butupali Padhi Sahi early Monday morning. As locals pelted stones at the animals, the latter entered into a pulses farm.
The movement of the tuskers attracted a large number of spectators who rushed to the spot to catch a glimpse of the animals.
Later, forest officials including divisional forest officer Yaswant Sethy and Boudh range officer Bipin Bihari Routroy reached the spot and cleared the traffic.
After hours of bursting firecrackers, the forest officials managed to drive away the elephants towards a forest alongside river Mahanadi. The herd refused to move any further, it was learnt.
A team of forest officials were deployed in the area to keep a watch on the movement of the elephants. No locals were allowed to go near the animals as many people in the past few months have tried to click pictures and selfies with the pachyderms often leading to deadly consequences. PNN
