Sambalpur: A cow elephant and her calf were rescued from an abandoned ditch Sunday morning where they had fallen the previous night in this district.
According to sources, the mother and her baby had fallen into the ditch located near a cold storage at Hatibari village under Sadar range here. While they kept trying repeatedly to come out on their own, it failed.
Sunday morning, locals spotted them and informed the forest department. The officials reached the spot and rescued the animals with the help of bulldozer, after a three-hour-long operation.
After getting out of the well, the cow gave a chase to the people who had thronged to witness the rescue operation – injuring some, damaging two motorcycles and three bicycles in the process. She left for the nearby jungle after a while.
Locals said that a herd of 24 elephants, including four calves, have been roaming around in the area causing widespread damage to agriculture. In an earlier incident, while one person was killed, several houses and farms were destroyed by the elephants in this area.
PNN