A herd of elephants were seen first time in the Hatigaon Reserve Forest under the Raighar Forest Range in Nabarangpur district on Wednesday. The elephants came from Salevata forest in bordering Chhattisgarh’s Sitanadi Sanctuary, said Raighar Ranger Sukumar Dukhu . The herd entered the Odisha forest on Tuesday night and returned to Chhattisgarh forest at 9 am on Wednesday after destroying about 20 acres of maize crops. A forest personnel team led by the Raigarh Ranger entered into the Hatigaon forest and followed the footprints of the elephants and confirmed that animals had returned to Chhattisgarh. It was stated that 13 elephants were there in the herd.