A herd of around 27 wild elephants from Jharkhand have strayed into clusters of forest-side villages in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts, unleashing a reign of terror in the region.

The jumbos, who have strayed into forest-side villages for the past four days, are showing no signs of leaving. The original habitation corridor of these animals lies at Jayant reserve forest in neighbouring Jharkhand, said forest officials.

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The straying of elephants from Jharkhand is a recurring feature here. The forest-side villages are often frequented by them. It’s the natural behavioural instincts of elephants to stride long distances in search of food. Jharkhand elephants stray into Odisha as dense forest cover in Odisha is enriched with fruit bearing trees like mangoes and jackfruits besides standing crops in croplands and luxuriant vegetable cultivation in the village areas. The elephant habitat in Jharkhand has shrunk following deforestation.

The elephant herd has so far not caused loss of human life. However it has damaged croplands, said officials.

Currently the herd headed by four adult tuskers was spotted loitering around the forest areas. Effort is on to drive them away from the area. The skilled service group of elephant chasers is keeping round the clock watch on these animals. The Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking teams have spotted the movement of these elephants, said officials.

The villagers have been advised not to venture into elephant-infested forest areas. They have been told to stay alert on possible intrusion of animals and promptly disseminate it to forest personnel, they added.

”It’s not humanly possible to prevent the acts of straying of wild elephants. We are adopting precautionary methods in alerting the people through our network of elephant squad forest staff to check man-elephant confrontation. Besides, the squads are keeping close watch of these animals’ movement near the railway tracks,” added forest officials.

Odisha recorded a marginal 6 per cent increase in elephant population in the past seven years while the rise in male adult pachyderms was substantial during the period, the All Odisha elephant census-2024 report released recently by forest, environment and climate change department said.

The last census conducted in 2017 counted 1,970 elephants while the latest census found an increase in 122 elephants at 6 per cent growth rate.