Five-yr-old elephant rescued from Ramgarh well after 12-hr operation
RANCHI: A five-year-old elephant was rescued on Monday after it fell into a 20-foot-deep well at Gosi village in Ramgarh district the previous night. The operation by forest officials lasted for about 12 hours, which involved creating an exit pathway near the well.
The elephant, which was with a herd of 18 jumbos roaming around the village for a week, was released in a nearby forest around 11 am. The herd entered a field travelling from Lugupahari, considered to be safe for jumbos in Bokaro district, on Sunday evening.
Ramgarh divisional forest officer (DFO) VS Dubey said, “The sub-adult elephant could not spot the well and tumbled into it around 11pm on Sunday. Alerted by the elephant’s trumpet, villagers reached the well and saw it struggling.”
The forest department sent a team at night. “Forest officials tried to bring the elephant out from the well but failed. We sent another team early in the morning with an excavator to rescue the elephant. It dug a slope for the exit,” Dubey added.
The rescue operation, however, faced many difficulties.
“A gathering of 20,000 villagers affected the operation,” Dubey said. A farmer, Guleshwar Mahto, claimed the rescue operation damaged his potato crops on one-acre of land and demanded compensation from forest department.
Dubey said the farmer would be compensated depending on an assessment report by a forest
A FARMER CLAIMED THAT THE 12-HOUR RESCUE OPERATION HAD DAMAGED HIS POTATO CROPS ON ONEACRE OF LAND
guard and a circle officer.
Meanwhile, the forest department has set up a special task force to drive away the herd from the village.
This was the second time in a year that an elephant has fallen into a well. On December 10, 2017, a two-year-old elephant tumbled into a 25-foot-deep well at Panwari village in Gumla district. It was rescued after 15 hours of operation.