A young Asian elephant in Kaziranga, India has been freed from a tough predicament after tumbling into an irrigation ditch. The 10-year-old elephant had landed in such a way that it was impossible for him to right himself — but fortunately, rescuers soon arrived to help him get back on his feet to reunite with his family.

After receiving word of the capsized calf, a team from the Center for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation and the International Fund For Animal Welfare (IFAW) hurried to the field where he’d been found.

“He was struggling to move and trumpeting, clearly in pain,” writes the IFAW's Rupa Gandhi Chaudhary. “The elephant was believed to be trapped in the previous night when its herd tried to sneak into the nearby paddy field nearby and somehow this one could have fallen down into the tea garden ditch.”

After about an hour of digging, the calf was finally able to raise himself up and out of the ditch.


“Some people clapped with joy on seeing the animal saved,” writes Chaudhary. “We all moved to a safe distance from the animal to facilitate his exit from the ditch.”
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