Elephant falls into 50-foot deep well in Kerala, rescue efforts underway

A rescue team comprising forest, revenue and police officials have started breaking the well by constructing a pathway to get the jumbo out of the well.

Hectic efforts are on to save a wild elephant that fell into a 50-foot deep well in Anakampoil in north Kerala’s Kozhikode district. Forest officials said it might have fallen into the unused well a couple of days back. The pachyderm was noticed by local people on Thursday evening.

The well is located in a private land and visuals from the spot show the animal standing inside the well in a cramped manner with its legs covered deep in the slush. (HT PHOTO.)

A rescue team comprising forest, revenue and police officials have started breaking the well by constructing a pathway to get the jumbo out of the well. The well is located in a private land and visuals from the spot show the animal standing inside the well in a cramped manner with its legs covered deep in the slush.

A senior forest official camping in the area said the elephant must have been injured under the impact of the fall and its health condition can be ascertained once it is out of the well. Local people said elephants used to frequent the area quite often posing a big threat to human habitat and fencing of the area was just started after repeated protests.

“It seems to be tired. We hope we can rescue it by tonight. If it is injured it will be shifted to a camp after tranquilising it,” said the forest official.

The official said large vegetation animals need big tracts of land to roam around and feed and farms in fringe areas draw them to it, leading to man-animal conflicts. According to statistics with the forest department, 24 people have died in elephant attacks last year.