Dhenkanal, Oct. 9: Wild elephants in Dhenkanal have been blocking the crucial national highway between Cuttack and Sambalpur via Angul intermittently for the past four days.

A herd of about 25 elephants, along with some calves were seen crossing or standing on the national highway between Jhargadia and Chainpur affecting traffic on the busy road. All efforts by forest officials to drive them out from the area have so far failed.

These animals have been roaming on the NH since last Wednesday. They come to the highway in the evenings and force the traffic to stop. Last night, they blocked the road for an hour near Jhargadia. The scenario was the same on Tuesday evening. They animals also destroyed paddy crops in Sadasibpur, Siminai, Gajasila, Gunadeipur, Sudhadeikateni, Baulapur and other villages provoking local residents to stage road blockades.

“A herd of elephants that migrated possibly from Kamakhayanagar before the floods have not returned because of the overflowing Brahamani river. One of the elephants died in a train accident last month. Then they went to Hindol jungle and now are looking to return to Kamakhyanagar area by crossing the Brahmani. But they cannot venture to swim because they have some calves with them and have been wandering in the area for a fortnight now,” said Ajay Sahu, range officer of Dhenkanal Sadar range.

“We are making efforts to drive them away from this area to their own habitat. We have deployed people on some points to check their movements to NH areas,” he added.

“Dhenkanal is being affected by this problem in recent years with elephants from neighbouring areas like Angul, Keonjhar, Cuttack and Chandka areas entering the district very frequently. However, blocking traffic is a new problem for us but we are trying to tackle it,” said divisional forest officer S.K. Dalei.

“All our paddy crops are being destroyed by elephants. We demand immediate steps to stop them from coming here,” said Balaram Pradhan, a villager. “Elephants are now becoming aggressive because their habitats and corridors are being destroyed by mines industries and irrigation canals. The menace will grow with new areas coming under threat. Indiscriminate fencing of villages have further squeezed their movements forcing them to become hostile,” said wildlife activist Prasanna Behera, adding that elephants are peaceful creatures that prefer to stick to their ancient corridors and are reluctant to deviate.