Keonjhar: Elephants are back to trouble the people living along the forest-side villages in the district after a brief spell of lull.

A herd of eleven elephants have strayed into villages lying close to Harichandanpur forest range, ravaging agriculture fields and houses over the past 72 hours.

The animals made their way to Jamujodi, Medinipur, Sagadapata Khadibahali, Kuajharana ghat villages lying close to Harichandanpur forest range, leaving behind the habitats in Ghatagaon and Telkoi forest range, said forest range officer Ashok Kumar Nayak.

Skilled elephant chasers are keeping round-the-clock watch on these animals. Global-positioning-system (GPS) tracking teams have also spotted the movement of these elephants close to human habitation areas.

Elephants have trampled almost all vegetable plants and banana plantations in these areas. The elephants usually remain confined within the forest limits during daytime, while they stride their way into forest-side villages after sunset.

"As the location of the elephants has been tracked, we hope to be able to block their movement and send them back to their habitat very soon. A patrolling squad, comprising 40 personnel, is trying its best to send the herd back to its original habitat in Ghatogaon and Telkoi, the official said.

As many as 117 human-elephant confrontations have already been documented in Odisha this year - which is the highest in the past four years. The elephants trampled some 84 people, of whom 71 died.