A tusker breached a roadside barricade and crossed National Highway-55 near Oranda in Odisha’s Cuttack district late on Monday night, alarming motorists and passengers and renewing concerns over elephant movement across busy highways.
The elephant emerged near the Khuntuni forest range under the Cuttack Forest division and broke through a barricade installed along the roadside before making its way across the highway, according to a report by Deccan Chronicle. The sudden movement left commuters travelling on the route alarmed, although the report did not mention any injuries or vehicle damage.
The incident highlights the immediate safety challenge created when elephant movement intersects with high-speed traffic corridors. A roadside barricade can separate vehicles from forest edges and nearby settlements, but the animal’s breach showed the difficulty of relying on physical barriers alone along routes used by elephants.
The latest crossing comes amid a series of reported human-elephant conflict incidents in Odisha. On October 21, a man was trampled to death by an elephant while sleeping inside his house in Dahimal village under Deogaon police limits in Bolangir district, the report said.
Earlier, on October 10, an elephant damaged the boundary wall and hand pump of a government primary school at Dadhiapadar village under Muribahal block in Bolangir. The school is located inside a forest and around 2 km from the village, and has 35 students. Following the incident, villagers demanded that the school be relocated closer to their homes, citing the danger faced by children travelling to a location frequented by elephants.
The recurring encounters have raised questions about how authorities manage elephant movement near roads, settlements and public infrastructure. Wildlife activist Kambu Dhar Kheti said efforts to drive elephants back into forest areas often fail to provide a lasting solution because the animals continue to enter human habitations and cross major roads.
Kheti said the presence of elephant corridors across human settlements, roads and public infrastructure made it necessary to address both animal movement and the safety of people using these spaces. The report did not provide details of any immediate traffic-control operation, additional barricading or other response by the forest department following the NH-55 incident.
The next steps will depend on measures taken by forest and road authorities to manage elephant crossings near the Khuntuni forest range and reduce the risk of further encounters between wildlife, commuters and nearby communities.
