The herd of elephants on the banks of the Koel river. Picture by Uttam Kumar Pal

Rourkela, Sept. 14: Forest officials had a hectic day today in chasing away a herd of 10 elephants from the outskirts of the town.

Sources said the herd strayed into the area after some villagers had obstructed their path.

The elephants damaged some houses, including a pump house near the Koel river, while moving close to Block D at Koel Nagar. Forest officials used all possible tricks to divert the elephants into the forest with the help of local residents. The herd consisted of one male, two calves and seven adult female elephants. Yesterday, the forest officials had driven the herd out of the farm of former zilla parishad member Letha Tirkey. The jumbos were driven towards Jamasara and Jhirpani areas.

But the villagers resisted the move of the forest officials claiming that the animals would destroy their crops if they were driven through their area. This created tension in the area as the forest officials and the villagers stuck to their decisions, bringing the operation to a halt.

Later, the forest officials and the local administration held a discussion with the villagers and urged them to allow the elephants to pass through the area into the jungle. Divisional forest officer Sanjit Kumar said their aim was to chase the elephants down into the forest, so that the animals would not damage properties or lives.

“We have deployed our men to divert the herd into the Saranda forests. The local residents should co-operate with us,” said Kumar. This evening, several teams of the forest department chased down the elephants with the help of crackers and drums.