Baripada: After hours of frantic efforts forest and fire brigade teams rescued an elephant calf which fell into a dug-well near Ghasamari reserve forest in Mayurbhanj district on Friday, forest officials said.
The calf accidentally fell into a nine feet depth dug-well on Thursday night while it was roaming in the nearby reserve forest area with a herd of elephants.
The incident was reported to the local forest officials by the villagers.
The forest department officials along with a fire brigade team rushed to the spot and launched the rescue operation. The mother of the calf along with other female elephants were guarding the area for long hours, they said.
However, the rescue team managed to drive away the guarding elephants and roped in a heavy earthmover machine. A passage was made by the earthmover machinery by removing a part of the concrete portion of the dug well, they said.
There after the waiting elephants took away the calf through the makeshift passage. The rescue operation took more than six hours, said Prashanta Kumar Behera, the Range Officer of Rashgovindapur.