Wild elephant rescued from pond

Forest team releases it ‘without human touch’

A six-year-old elephant, which fell into a pond, was rescued “without human touch” by a joint team of forest and locals at Brahmagiri under the Thirunelly forest station limits of the North Wayanad forest division on Thursday.

The workers of the Brahamagiri-A estate had found the female elephant inside the pond of a private coffee plantation on the fringes of the forest under the Begur forest range in the morning. On noticing the elephant struggling to come out, the locals alerted the forest staff of Thirunelly forest station.

A team led by Begur deputy forest range officer M.V. Jayaprasad, assisted by forest watchers of the forest station and locals, initially broke the bund to make a slope and subsequently moved the elephant by making loud noise from behind.

There have been many instances in the past when elephants, especially elephant calves, that had been rescued in similar circumstances were rejected by the herd, owing to what is being inferred as the physical touch of humans, Mr. Jayaprsad said.

It was suspected that the elephant had fallen into the pond on Wednesday night while its herd had come to drink water, he said.

The elephant, which slipped a couple of times, came out and joined its herd waiting in the nearby forest area under the Begur forest range. It took five hours to complete the operation.