A male elephant was stranded for over 12 hours in the Teesta river canal after water levels suddenly rose on Thursday. The animal finally managed to move to safety around 7 pm, when the sluice gates of the Gajoldoba barrage were shut to reduce the water flow in the area. The incident took place when a herd of 20 elephants from Baikunthapur forest in Jalpaiguri district were moving towards Lataguri forest in the morning. Forest officials arrived at the spot but were not able to do much as the water levels continued to rise.