KEONJHAR : A herd of eight elephants were rescued by forest officials on Monday, after being stranded in Erendei village under Patana forest range of Keonjhar district for 24 hours. The elephants including a calf were stranded due to sudden rise of water level in the river due to heavy rain on Sunday. They had then taken shelter near a hilly area. On Monday when the water level came down, the forest officials launched an operation to rescue the animals with the help of villagers. Later, they gave paddy and coconuts to the hungry herd.