Angul: A three-hour-long operation jointly launched by the Purunagada and Jarapada Forest Range staffs and a local ODRAF team bore fruit when an eight-year-old female elephant was successfully rescued from an abandoned well unhurt Thursday.
The villagers of Balijerenga village in Angul district had spotted the calf inside an abandoned well in a farmland.
According to the villagers, they woke up Thursday morning hearing the frantic trumpet of the calf. Following the sound, they reached an abandoned boundary-less well dug up for irrigation purpose only to find the calf inside the well.
“The calf had been trying its best to come out of the well on its own but was failing in its attempts,” they recounted.
They immediately informed the Forest Department. Coming to know about the incident, a team of forest officials along with fire fighting personnel reached the spot. They immediately launched an operation to get the pachyderm out of the well.
It took around three-hours for the teams to rescue the pachyderm. A JCB machine was also pressed into service to help the teams.
As soon as the calf was brought out of the well, it hurriedly ran towards the nearby Patharagada jungle, giving the villagers, Forest Department staff and ODRAF team members a reason to heave a sigh of relief.
PNN