Six escape elephant wrath

BHUBANESWAR:Six people had a narrow escape when a marauding tusker attacked their stationary vehicle and overturned it in Jagannath vihar area here, official sources said.

The incident occurred when the six were about to set out on a picnic in a jeep around midnight last night.

The driver of the vehicle blew the horn to scare away the approaching elephant, who instead of retreating attacked the vehicle and broke the glass panes before overturning it. The left the place after it, the sources said quoting eye witness accounts.

The six were injured and were in a state of shock, the sources said.

The tusker had come from adjacent Chandaka Wildlife sanctuary by crossing a six feet deep trench dug around it to check the entry of elephants into the city.

Elephants entering the city have become a routine affair as they often come out of their habitat in search of food and water due to denudation of forest cover, the sources said.