A herd of over 12 elephants were spotted at Tumkela slum near the Ispat College at Sector-16 here on Monday, causing panic among the slum dwellers. While a few elephants were roaming at the other side of river Koel, some of them had reached the slum area crossing the river.
On being informed, Rourkela Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Sanjeev Kumar immediately directed Panposh ranger PK Pradhan to make necessary arrangement to drive away the pachyderms. Pradhan succeeded to some extent in removing the animals. Earlier, an elephant herd had entered into the city in July last.