Raha, Raha, Raha!” urges Panchanan Nayak. The hoarse, urgent whisper from the short, wiry man makes the eight-foot tall elephant, the matriarch of the herd stop in her tracks. She grinds to a halt, then extends her trunk to encircle her young son, in her attempt to contain him. She is a wild elephant, even if Panchanan calls her by the name “Lakshmi”. Her herd of 25-odd-elephants have paused— impatient—just short of the busy Bhubaneswar-Athgarh highway (Odisha) and the paddy fiel