Calf suffocates to death after ‘rescue’ efforts by herd

An elephant calf, nearly a month old, suffocated to death after it slipped into an 8ft-deep drain of a garden and probable rescue efforts by older members of the herd went awry. The soil surrounding the drain loosened and fell on the baby elephant as the older ones probably tried to reach into the ditch for it.

“The body of the calf was covered with soil and only its small trunk and legs were visible,” said Jyotsna Barman, a resident of Huntapara Tea Garden who was among the first to reach the spot. “The elephants also damaged many tea bushes.” The herd of 17 pachyderms had entered Huntapara garden from Titi forest around 11.30pm yesterday. Foresters from the Lankapara range of the Cooch Behar division, who were informed by garden workers about the herd’s entry, reached the spot, 65km from here, along with an elephant squad and drove the herd towards Titi.

Although the foresters could not throw light on how and when the baby elephant fell into the high drain in Section 38 of the garden, they assumed that it had slipped into the ditch unnoticed while crossing it.

Around three-and-a-half hours later, the elephants, which perhaps could not find the calf in their herd by then, returned to Huntapara that shares its boundary with the Titi forest to bring back the calf. Footprints around the drain suggested that adult elephants had tried to reach down to rescue the calf, the foresters said.

“But because of their feet movement, huge chunks of soil fell on the calf in the drain and subsequently it died,” said Ujjwal Ghosh, the divisional forest officer (DFO) of Cooch Behar.

Early this morning, the residents of the garden saw the calf lying inside the drain. Around 8am, the foresters along with veterinary surgeon Proloy Mandal arrived. According to the foresters, the calf was probably alive when it had fallen into the drain. “The animal died of suffocation,” the DFO said quoting the post-mortem report.

As nearly 200 people had gathered at the spot, the foresters took the carcass in a van to the watch tower in Lankapara, 5km from the garden, and conducted the post-mortem. Later, the body was cremated, Ghosh said.

The foresters recalled a similar incident in 2005 when a five-month-old elephant died after falling into a drain in the Dalshingpara tea garden under Buxa Tiger Reserve (west). The adult members had tried to rescue the calf but aggravated the situation. The animal was buried under the soil.

Courtesy: Telegraph

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