Baby Elephant is Rescued by the Community. Elephants are magnificent, humongous, and peace-loving animals. Wild elephants are used to living in the world and have little or no interaction with humans. Some are even agitated by humans and can turn into dangerous creatures if provoked. However, the ones raised in zoos are used to humans and are very social.
In India, elephants are respected, and wild ones roam freely in rural areas. However, they avoid populated villages because they prefer less contact with humans. Luckily, local villagers respect these elephants enough and give them the space they need. As a result, both the elephants and people live in harmony.
1. Living Together in Harmony
Since elephants prefer staying alone and in herds, they don’t pose any threat to human life. People in nearby villages live with these creatures harmoniously. The only trick is that everyone stays off each other’s space. If elephants feel threatened at any point, they could become chaotic and cause a lot of irreversible damage to the village.
Elephants live in herds, and there’s one herd that lives in a forest along the Urulanthanni River in India. People from the area have mastered this herd because they watch them from afar. From time to time, these elephants shake the ground as they walk past the trees, making the forest sound buzzy.
2. A Terrible Incident
The herd always knows their way through the forest, and they always get to where they’re going. However, on an unfortunate day, the herd was forced to get help from humans when a life-threatening situation arose. The rescue team wasted no time and did their best to help the beautiful creatures.
The herd wanted to cross the river on that fateful day, and the adults knew the paths too well. However, they had a baby elephant in their company who knew nothing about crossing the river. As the herd crossed the river, the infant lost a step and fell into a muddy hole. The hole was too deep for the baby to climb out, and immediately, he started calling for help.
3. Stress and Anxiety Kicks In
As soon as the baby elephant started making calls for help, the entire herd realized the young one was in danger. They all became distressed, and there was no way they could help the infant out of the hole. A thick layer of mud covered the baby, and he could barely move.
The herd started feeling helpless since they could only watch the baby struggle in the muddy hole. The more the baby elephant called for help, the more distressed the herd became. They knew they had to do something to help their infant. In a short moment, the herd started wandering up and down, trying to help the baby. They then started making noises as a cry for help.
4. Time Goes by, and the Herd is Restless
To the elephants, making noise would raise an alarm among the villagers, and someone would answer their call. It wasn’t successful, and the elephants started becoming more anxious. Down in the hole, the infant was becoming tired and stressed as time passed. He was becoming fatigued and was almost giving up.
The adults knew they couldn’t approach the hole because they were too big to fit. So, they stayed away but knew something had to be done. Elephants are known to love and protect each other at all costs.
To make the matter worse, the heat was becoming too much, which increased the baby’s level of helplessness. All the elephants could do was make more noises, keep pacing and wait for help. The hotter it became, the mud started drying up, making it more difficult for the baby elephant to move around. He really needed immediate help.
5. A Worrying Situation
At this point, there’s nothing the elephants could do but still, they stayed around the hole and circled it. The baby elephant was slowly losing consciousness, and his eyes were shutting down. The herd saw this and started screaming loudly, producing a sound similar to thunder. They didn’t want to give up on one of them, so they sent out a loud warning signal. The cry was too loud to ignore.
The noises produced by the elephants were a call for help, and any creature was bound to understand that, including humans. The villagers started hearing the noises, and even though they couldn’t understand what the animals were trying to communicate.
The infant had given up, but the sounds from his fellow elephants gave him more strength to fight on. He could tell that they were willing to help, and it was up to him to hold on until someone came to the rescue. With more strength, he tried to get out of the hole once more, but to no avail. The mud was still a stumbling block to the process.
6. The Alarm is Heard and Answered
The villagers heard the unusual noises but didn’t clearly understand its origin. Some thought that the neighboring village was playing loud music, while others ignored it, thinking it was nothing. Thanks to the elephants’ persistence, the noise became too loud, and it was evident that it was a call for help.
They were afraid that they would be in danger if they followed the noise. It was clear that the alarm was from the forest, and it was quite a distance away. With enough courage, the villagers marched into the forest to investigate the source of the noise. As they got near the river bend, they realized it was a herd of elephants screaming.
Previously, the villagers had experienced encounters with leopards in the same forest, so their first obvious guess was a leopard attacking the herd. They were scared because leopards are known to attack humans.
7. The Elephants’ Cry for Help was not in Vain
As the villagers approached, the elephants realized that their call for help was answered. As people got near the hole, they saw the baby elephant trying to get himself off the muddy hole. They couldn’t believe the rest of the elephants surrounded them.
Sadly, the villagers couldn’t get the elephant out by themselves. The next move was to call for professional help. Therefore, they called the authorities and informed them of the situation.
8. Help was On Its Way
Soon, a caravan of vehicles started approaching the area, and both the locals and the herd were excited. The Forest and Wildlife rescue team needed space to work successfully, so they needed to redirect the locals and the elephants elsewhere. Apart from this, they also required bigger equipment to dig out the hole and take out the baby elephant. They didn’t have the necessary equipment at the moment, so one of them had to go back to get what was needed. The other rescue officials stayed with the baby as one of them went to get the right equipment.
The second team arrived with a big excavator, which would work, and the terrible ordeal would be over. They had to be highly keen as they carried out the process to avoid harming the baby elephant. It was a risky operation, but the baby would come out unharmed by the machine with maximum precaution. At this time, about 24 hours had gone by, night and day had passed by, and he was still in the hole.
9. The Experts Were Working Round the Clock
The rescue process was going to last hours, and more space was needed. The excavator made its way to the hole in an attempt to have the baby climb out. But before that, they needed to dig around the baby because he was stuck in the baked mud. Space was limited in the hole, and they had to ensure that the baby wasn’t harmed and that mud didn’t fall on him.
Some of the strong villagers started helping the rescue mission while the others watched from afar. It became a joint mission of the rescue team and the community while the rest of the herd watched curiously. The rescuers were busy digging out the mud when suddenly there was a bang, and the machine stopped working.
Now the rescue had to come to a halt so as to fix the engine. Some local villagers knew how to fix engines, and they started the process immediately. After about an hour, the engine was fixed, and they could go back to the rescuing process. It was a time to rejoice because now the officials could go on with digging up the baby out of the mud.
10. Finally, the Baby Elephant is Rescued
After what seemed like an eternity, the poor elephant was dug out, and a clear path was created. The baby was too exhausted, so he had to get assistance from his mother, who came running as soon as the team paved the way. It was terrifying but pleasing to see the baby getting help.
The mother was able to help her baby get out of the horrible hole after endless hours of misery. The herd started trumpeting while the crowd cheered along. The other elephants circled the baby and his mother. You could see their ears flapping in celebration after a victorious rescue. The herd circled the baby, and his mom, and they were so happy that he was safe and unharmed.
11. Happy End
Once the elephants crossed the river, they stopped, turned around and faced the villagers. In a way, they were bidding them goodbye and appreciating them by trumpeting. Everyone was happy as the elephants continued with their journey into the forest.
Indeed, this was a remarkable day that will always stay on the villagers‘ minds. Having such an experience with elephants was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.