Date:09/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/09/stories/2008070957100100.htm

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Elephant, calf rescued from well

Staff reporter

— Photo: Lingaraj Panda

JUMBO EFFORT: Villagers look at the elephants that fell into an irrigation well at Santuli in Ganjam district on Tuesday.

BERHAMPUR: An elephant and its calf were rescued from an irrigation well at Satuli village near Huma in Ganjam district on Tuesday. The pachyderms were part of the stray wild elephant herd from Chandaka elephant sanctuary, which has been roaming around Ganjam district for the past few months.

According to the villagers, the two elephants fell into the well on Monday night. It occurred when the elephant herd entered the agricultural fields in search of harvested paddy. After the two fell into the well, the herd seemed to have preferred to escape into nearby jungle.

On receiving information, forest officials rushed to the place. But, the villagers demanded immediate compensation before rescue of the wild animals. The local tehsildar and the Berhampur Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) A.K. Jena reached the spot and pacified the villagers.

Tricky situation

The owner of the well was given Rs. 4,000 from the district Red Cross fund. Later, the forest officials launched rescue operation at around 10.30 a.m. with the help of the fire brigade.

According to Mr. Jena, it was a tricky situation as they did not have any mechanical device to lift the animals out of the well. They tried to fill up the well with water to the brim instead of using the pumps of the fire brigade. Wall on the side of the well was broken and a slope was created to enable the animals to come out. After the well got filled up with water the calf could be brought out of the well twice at first but each time it preferred to get back into the well as its mother was inside. The heavy mother was not able to get out of the well on its own. So a plant was tied to hind portion of the mother elephant and the forest officials pushed it from behind while it was trying to get out. When the mother came out of the well the calf also did the same on its own. After coming out of the well, the elephants preferred to run into the nearby jungle to escape from the crowd which had gathered at the spot. “We preferred to let them escape from the spot as we did not want the shocked animals to get more panicked by the crowd and we want them to become part of their original herd again,” said Mr. Jena.