Bandipur Tiger Reserve shared the video of the rescue of the elephant.
Forest personnel rescued an elephant calf that was stuck in slush in the Moleyur range of Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka. The tiger reserve shared a video of the rescue mission on its official Twitter handle.
As one starts to watch the video, initially it would appear as if the elephant is rolling in the mud to beat the heat, as they usually do when they come across waterbodies in forests during summer. However, soon, it becomes evident that the animal is trying to stand up on its feet but is unable to do so because of the slippery nature of the surface.
In the process, the calf gets exhausted. That's when the forest personnel intervened and brought in an excavator to help the animal. They pushed the elephant gradually towards the edge of the slush where the ground wasn't as slippery, and helped the animal stand up on its feet.
The tiger reserve captioned the clip, “One female elephant, stuck in the fresh mud puddle in Moleyur range of Bandipur Tiger Reserve, rescued successfully.”
The post received over 1,000 ‘likes' and many users applauded the forest personnel for rescuing the animal. While one user commended the “alert staff of the forest department” for doing “a marvellous job through innovative rescue operations”, another person thanked the “JCB operator who ensured the elephant didn't get hurt while being rescued”.
A third user also commended the “man-animal cooperation”, and added that it was a welcome change from the “usual rant of man-animal conflict”.
There was also another user who wanted to find out if the “elephant calf was reunited with its mother/herd”.
Ramesh Pandey, an Indian Forest Service officer, also shared the same clip and wrote, “Sometimes wrong posture coupled with heavy weight in a slushy ground can make an elephant helpless.”