A herd of 15 wild Asian elephants in China was spotted travelling around 500 kilometres in the last few weeks. They travelled through highways and forests, the urban areas and outskirts. They began their journey from Xishuangbanna national nature reserve in the Yunnan province. They were last seen in the outskirts of Kunming city in Southern Yunnan, reported WION.

According to the government, the herd earlier had 16 elephants, but two headed back to the forest reserve, and also a baby was born during the travel, leaving the group with 15 elephants. As per Xinhua, a state news agency, the herd was in a city called Yuxi, which is around 20 kilometres from Kunming. The city officials have alerted the local residents to evacuate, reported WION.

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Images captured from drones show that there are six females, three male adults, three calves and three juveniles. Several efforts by forest officials, who have been tracking the herd, to redirect them to less populated areas by putting up hurdles such as blockades have failed. Up until Tuesday, over 360 people, 76 police cars and dirt trucks, and nine drones were summoned to reroute the herd away from populated areas, reported WION.

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Consequently, roads were cleared, people were evacuated, traffic was brought to a halt. No casualties have been reported, so far. In recent times, there have been similar cases of elephant movements in villages and damaging crops. The journey of this herd began in mid-April, and this has resulted in the destruction of about 56 hectares of crops, which is worth the loss of $1.07 million, reported WION.