Elephant Which Fell Into Well In Kerala Rescued After 18 Hours

An elephant which fell into a private well in this district was rescued after being trapped in it for over 18 hours and driven into nearby forest, a forest official said on Friday.

The elephant fell in the well located in Urangattiri village on Thursday. The locals initially protested against the rescue, demanding the elephant be tranquilised and relocated to some other deep forest area. However, after the forest officials assured them that steps like deploying the kumkis would be taken to prevent the pachyderm from coming back, they gave up the protest, the official said.

Two kumki elephants (elephants in captivity used to tame and train wild elephants) have been deployed to patrol the area, monitor the movements of the rescued tusker and ensure it does not come back to the inhabited areas, the official added.

Besides that, a large number of police and forest department personnel have also been deployed to monitor the elephant's movements, he said.

He further said that the elephant was healthy, but slightly weak as it was entrapped inside the seven meter deep well for so long without food. He also said that an order has been received from the Chief Wildlife Warden permitting to tranquilise and capture the elephant if necessary.

The official also said that the owner of the land where the well was located would be compensated for the damage to his property during the rescue process.

On Thursday, the landowner and other local residents had opposed release of the elephant in the same area after its rescue, saying that it would again come out of the forest to destroy their crops.

By late Thursday evening, the officials were able to convince the residents to cooperate with the rescue of the elephant after assuring them that they would be protected against further attacks or encroachments by the tusker, the official said. 

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