MANGALURU: On a quiet Sunday night, the otherwise unbroken stillness of the farmlands bordering the Pumale reserve forest was shattered by frantic trumpeting. A lone tusker, estimated to be aged between 20 and 25, had fallen into an open well, nearly 30 feet deep, within an arecanut plantation near Peraja. The plantation, owned by Ramesh Naik at Kalcharpe, is located around 6km from Sullia town in Dakshina Kannada.
What began as uneasy, distant sounds in the darkness quickly escalated into a harrowing, all-night vigil by forest personnel, and by dawn, it had become a relentless race against time to save a life.
“We received information about 11.30 pm. There was a lot of commotion from the surrounding fields. Our personnel rushed to the spot and confirmed that an elephant had fallen into the well,” said Deputy Conservator of Forests Antony Mariappa.
In the darkness, the team had little choice but to keep a close watch on the situation and wait for daylight. Through the night, forest staff maintained a careful vigil, ensuring the distressed animal stayed as calm as possible to prevent any further danger.
At the break of first light, the true challenge became apparent. The well was located within an inaccessible stretch of land, rendering standard rescue measures extremely difficult. By 6.30 am, teams brought in heavy machinery, surveying and mapping out a safe route for the tusker to escape. However, the elephant was almost 30 feet below ground level. “We had to excavate nearly the entire depth, up to the shoulder level of the elephant,” Mariappa said.
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A ramp was carved out, and a trench was created to guide the animal back toward the nearby forest. The plan was straightforward in concept: provide the tusker with a clear corridor out of danger, while ensuring it did not run amok into the crowd.
Instead of following the prepared trench route, the tusker surged forward abruptly after hours. A Hitachi machine clearing the area could not reverse swiftly enough as the stunned operator froze for a fraction of a second. The elephant swung past the machinery and bolted into the farmland, even edging toward the road.
Forest personnel, members of the Elephant Task Force and anti-poaching teams sprang into action, deploying firecrackers and firing warning shots into the air to steer the animal away from people and back towards the forest. The tactic worked. The tusker turned, and finally vanished into the forest, walking nearly 500 metres without any visible injury.
For the rescue team, it was a moment of deep relief. “Once the panic settles, the animal finds its own way. That is what happened here. The elephant chose the same path it had used to come in,” Mariappa said.
The operation, which wrapped up around 1 pm, mobilised nearly 100 personnel, including forest staff, police and fire personnel, Elephant Task Force (ETF)members and veterinarians equipped with tranquillisers. It was also the first such operation conducted after the ETF was established in Dakshina Kannada a month earlier.