Jalpaiguri: An adult female elephant and her calf fell into a water tank at Kumargram Tea Estate in Alipurduar’s Kumargramduar in the early hours on Wednesday. The area falls within the Buxa Tiger Reserve forest.
Tea garden workers spotted the elephants trapped in the tank in the morning and alerted the forest department. Such tanks are dug in tea gardens to store water for irrigation.
After inspecting the site, forest officials brought in a JCB and broke open one side of the tank to create an exit. They then secured ropes around the elephants and used the machine to pull out.
The rescue operation lasted more than three hours and involved considerable risk, as officials expected the mother elephant to attack once she was out of the tank.
“We knew the mother elephant would attack us. But we also knew that if we were late in dodging her and pulling out the calf, it would drown. So we had prepared accordingly. While a team drove the adult away to a safe distance after she was pulled out and attacked the machine, another team secured the calf with ropes and pulled it out using the JCB,” a forester said.
Once both elephants were rescued, the mother and the calf reunited and returned to the forest.