Rourkela, February 18 Officials from the Rourkela Forest Division in Odisha rescued an elephant that had fallen into a deep well on Wednesday, police said.
The rescue operation was carried out by forest officials from the Hatibari Range, according to DFO Jasobanta Sethi of the Rourkela Forest Division.
"Our staff received information about the elephant falling into the well on Tuesday night, but it was not possible to carry out a rescue operation due to the darkness. In the morning, we called in earth-moving equipment and dug a slope so that the elephant could walk through it," the DFO said.
According to information, locals heard the distress call of the elephant, which had fallen into a well nearly 15-16 feet deep, early in the morning.
The location where the elephant fell is close to the elephant corridor. The well has no walls and was simply dug into the ground.
Two earth-moving machines were used to safely extract the animal. It took several hours to lift the elephant from the well using the slope, the DFO said.
"Fortunately, the elephant was unharmed during the rescue," the DFO said.
After the rescue, the forest officials kept the elephant under observation and later released it into a nearby dense forest.
The DFO said that officials are educating the local population to avoid creating such open wells or trenches on elephant movement routes so that such incidents do not occur.