The elephant after it was driven back into Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary. A Telegraph picture

Siliguri, Dec. 22: For 40 minutes today, a tusker blocked NH55, ignoring the long line of vehicles that had queued up on both sides of the huge divide and the 300 passengers who stood in awe of it.

It was around 1pm when the full grown male jumbo sauntered up to the national highway— that connects Siliguri to Darjeeling— from the fringes of Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary near the Sukna army camp.

The driver of a jeep — one of the vehicles that was passing by at that time — remembers coming to a screeching halt. “I had just come down from the hills and about to increase speed when suddenly the elephant materialised out of the roadside forest. I pressed the brake and then reversed the car back to a safe distance,” the driver said.

Kanchan Banerjee, the range officer of the Sukna Wildlife Squad, said the animal was in mast (in heat) and a bit drowsy. “Hundreds of people had come out of their vehicles, shouting enthusiastically. Several others came from the nearby market and localities around Sukna to have a glimpse of the animal. The elephant stood on the middle of the road, snorting and occasionally raising its trunk,” said Banerjee, recollecting the sight that first met his eyes when he arrived 20 minutes after 1pm.

While the local people appeared curious but calm, there was no restraining the tourists. Most of them were returning to Siliguri from the hills.

“This is the first time that I have seen a wild elephant, that too in the middle of the road!” yelled Dhriti Bhowmik, a young woman from Barrackpore in South 24-Paraganas. She came out, approached a few steps but went back when the driver reprimanded her that the elephant might charge at the vehicles.

Finally, like many others, she found a safe seat atop the Tavera she was travelling. The elephant could be clearly seen and Dhriti clicked on for what she said was a real “wild picture”.

Her brother Angshu managed to get on to the roof of another vehicle with a handy-cam.

At the end of 30 minutes, a traffic jam had build up on the road and tension became palpable. More people continued to flock along the road. Some older women folded their hands and greeted Mahakal Baba (as the elephant is known in north Bengal and worshipped).

Some young boys joked among themselves that the elephant had staged dharna to protest against animal deaths on railway tracks.

Members of the wildlife squad at Sukna, who had been to Janatanagar Colony in Siliguri to catch a monkey creating trouble in the area, had just managed to trap it when they received the SOS from Sukna.

“We went towards the elephant with on our vehicle, bursting crackers Fortunately, it did not retaliate but entered the sanctuary. But it took a lot of time to get away from the road, cross the DHR tracks and enter the forests,” Banerjee said.

The elephant has been identified as one who lives in the sanctuary. “It is not among those elephants which roam the Mech-to-Sankosh corridor,” said Banerjee

News of elephants damaging hutments and eating crops were today reported from Kadapara close to Bagdogra and at Batasibhita in Belacoba, which is under the Baikunthapur forest division.

Foresters said the herd in Kadapara consisted of 35-40 elephants while at Batasibhita a group of seven-eight animals ran riot.

The animals have been steered back into the forest for the time being. “But we will soon bring kunkis to drive them deep inside. Otherwise, they keep coming back,” a forester said.