Bisra Maidan, which played host to luminaries like Indira Gandhi, A B Vajpayee and L K Advani in the past, was today besieged by uninvited guests -- a herd of wild elephants, striking panic in the steel city.
Official sources said the eleven strong herd, comprising six females, two males and three calves which had stayed for the last couple of days near Bisra Rehabilitation and Settlement (RS) Colony, started the march towards Rourkela city in the wee hours.
The stretch between Rourkela-Bisra is about 21 kms with vast unoccupied expanses and the jumbos covered it in no time. The residents of the RS Colony say they saw the herd moving from their habitation in the wee hours, sources said.
The pachyderms did not harm anybody but damaged a wall, a few kiosks and three auto rickshaws before crossing the Ring Road and then reaching the stadium, they said.
Plant Site police got the information and informed forest officials. "On getting information about the presence of the herd, I informed the forest department and moved to the spot. By that time a small crowd was watching the scene", said Arun Swain, IIC Plant Site Police Station.
As precautionary measure all the gates of the stadium were closed. "We were lucky that by that time the first sign of day break was visible and the herd generally does not move during day time", said S Kumar, DFO Panposh range.
"First we closed the gates," said a police official adding food items like banana and mango were thrown towards them. Gradually large branches of mango and banyan trees were brought for the jumbos.
"We are planning to start the process of evacuation during night, say by ten. For that the preparation is being made", said the DFO.
