KRISHNAGIRI: A one-and-a-half-year-old elephant fell into a non-fenced well located on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka reserve forest border early on Friday. The calf was rescued by officials six hours later on the same day.
The 15-feet-deep well, which was near Cauvery north sanctuary in Ulipenda reserve forest area, was unused for a long time. Bushes had covered it from all sides and the calf had unknowingly trampled upon it and had fallen inside.
"Lack of visibility might have led to the fall," AK Ulaganathan, district forest officer (DFO), Krishnagiri district told TOI. He also said that there are possibilities that it was searching for water with its mother. "The elephant and the calf may have come in search of water in the forest when he fell inside the well at around 7.30am on Friday morning," the DFO said. A team of forest officials comprising of assistant conservator of forest K Anand, division officer S Sukumar, forester K Selvaraj and anti-poaching watchers led by DFO Ulaganathan rushed to the spot with to rescue the calf.
"It was a challenging task for us as the mother elephant was not allowing us near the well. We had to use crackers and beat tom-toms to chase the mother elephant from the spot," he said and added after this the rescue team began their operations.
A slope was dug into the well to help the calf to climb out and it was safe to do so as the well had only 5 feet of water. "The elephant didn't have any signs of injuries and was taken back to the jungle and reunited with its mother, Ulaganathan added. The DFO further said incidents of elephants falling into wells were certainly not common but had occurred in the past across the Tamil Nadu reserve forest.
More than 118 elephants had entered the Tamil Nadu Reserve Forest from Karnataka Reserve Forest and camped at the Saanamavu forest area near Soolagiri, Anchetty and Denkanikottai in Krishnagiri district for the past few months.
