A 17-hour marathon rescue effort pulled out a chained elephant from a swamp where it had got trapped while trying to escape captivity.<br /><br />The 45-year-old elephant, Mullackal Balakrishnan or Bala for short, had broken through barricades and jumped from a truck, which was carrying it in the Southern Indian state of Kerala.<br /><br />But after fleeing for 6 kilometres, Bala ran into a waterlogged area and got stranded in a marsh. <br /><br />A rescue team of 200 people managed to pull out the elephant after a prolonged operation. <br /><br />They emptied the water from the swamp, tied ropes to Bala and pulled it up.<br /><br />The starving and exhausted animal, which was losing conscience, was rescued in the nick of time. A team of veterinary doctors injected the animal with glucose throughout the day to save its life. <br /><br />Bala, owned by Travancore Devaswom Board, was being transported to Mullakkal from Thrikkakara temple where it had been taken to attend a local festival.<br /><br />The driver of the lorry stopped to have tea at 4 am on Tuesday when Bala used the opportunity to make a dash for its freedom. It broke through the barricade, jumped down the truck and fled. <br /><br />Sreekumar Gopi, assistant mahout, told The Times of India that the elephant had been secured with a rope and four iron rods. “Its legs were chained. But the chain was not interconnected with legs,” he said. <br /><br />Around 5 am, pursued by its captors, the fleeing elephant ran into a marshy land and got trapped in it. <br /><br />Reports of captive elephants, which are usually ill-treated, fleeing for their freedom frequently surface from Kerala. <br /><br />In early August, a 35-year-old elephant Dhruvan fell into a well while trying to flee captivity, and met with a slow and agonising death.<br /><br />Animal welfare activist Rajeev N Kurup estimates that 16 captive elephants have died in in Kerala this year alone.
