Four elephants trapped in pond rescued in Dakshina Kannada

MANGALURU: A herd of four wild elephants, which came in search of water and fell into a pond at Ajjavara village of Sullia taluk in Dakshina Kannada district on Wednesday night, were rescued by forest officials on Thursday.

The elephant herd consisting of two calves fell into the pond in an arecanut farm owned by Sanath Rai. 
On noticing the animals, Sanath and other locals informed the forest officials and a rescue operation was started on Thursday morning.

Assistant Conservator of Forests Praveen, who led the rescue operation, suspected that one of the calves might have fallen into the pond and got trapped in the slush. “To rescue the calf, the elephants might have entered the pond, but failed to climb back up. Or the herd might have tried to quench thirst in the pond and got stuck,” he said.

“We helped the elephants move out of the pond by breaking a portion of the pond’s boundary using an earthmover. One of the elephants managed to climb outside the pond initially. Later, another adult elephant and a calf also moved out safely. However, one calf got stuck in the water and we rescued it later. We will reunite it with the herd,” said Praveen. Meanwhile, the locals demanded that the forest officials relocate the wild tuskers.