30,000 people crowd to watch elephants in Orissa

[Guest guest]

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=9 & theme= & usrsess=1 & id=140663

 

*Elephants entertain people*

 

Statesman News Service

DHENKANAL, Dec. 19: Thousands of officials, students and local

peoplegathered today to watch the 'soil bathe' of eighteen elephants

including two tuskers near Shyamcharanpur in the municipality area. The

sight captivated the audience from 6 am to 6 pm.

As evening approached the gathered crowd was beyond the control of the

forest officials. The crowd affected the traffic on the way to

Shyamcharanpur. According to forest officials the elephants strayed into the

municipality areas from Saptasajya and Megha hills in search of food.

About thirty thousand people gathered from different places to see the

elephants.The autorickshaws wala made a lot of money in a day owing to the

arrival of the animals as the people flooded in. DFO MM Panigrahi with a

team of officials visited the spot.

Forest officials were however alert with crackers to drive away the

elephants if the situation got out of hand. Forest officials said the soil

bathe is a part of the elephants' activities which their young learn. They

often do so out of anger and resistence from any part of their surrounding.