DHENKANAL: Panic gripped residents of Dhenkanal town after a herd of three elephants strayed into the locality on Thursday morning.The elephants went on a rampage on NH-55, injuring three persons at Korian village and halting construction work of Dhenkanal-Angul-Sambalpur NH section. Traffic on the NH came to a grinding halt for around six hours.

The injured, Abhay Mallick and his four-year-old daughter, were walking out of their home when one elephant attacked them. Another injured Sridhar Nayak, driver of a sugarcane-laden truck of Nayagarh, was going to attend nature’s call along the NH when he was attacked by the elephant. While Abhay and his daughter have been admitted to the DHH, Sridhar has been shifted to SCBMCH, Cuttack after his health condition deteriorated.

On being informed, a joint team of forest officials and police rushed to the spot and tried to drive away the jumbo. The frightened tusker then moved out of the NH towards nearby forest. While vehicular movement was prohibited in the area to avoid any untoward incident, residents of nearby Haripur and Korian villages were advised to stay at home and choose alternate road for communication. The power supply was also snapped by the CESU during the drive. Forest and police officials were deployed on the spot to guide commuters on NH-55 about movement of elephants.Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Sudarshan Patra said, “Movement of the elephants is being constantly monitored by police, forest and CESU officials.”