Kolkata: After almost a 90-minute operation in the strongly-flowing Kangsabati river, a two-month-old elephant calf was reunited with its mother. The calf got separated from its herd on a small island in the middle of the river on Saturday night.
“The mother had crossed over to the other side of the river, while a team of Jhargram forest division was monitoring the stranded calf,” said Umar Imam, divisional forest officer of Jhargram.Braving the strong currents, two trackers swam to the island and brought the calf to the bank.
“The calf tried to step into the waters. It was stopped using a cloth. The monitoring teams tracked the herd.. The calf was then moved with the help of trackers in a way that the mother could see it from the other side,” Imam added. The monitoring team waited till the mother elephant and its calf started making calls . “Soon, the mother elephant crossed the river, and the calf was released,” he added. A 20-member team was involved in the operation, said chief wildlife warden Debal Roy.