Forest officials have rescued an elephant calf from a well in eastern India by using excavators in a dramatic four-hour operation. <br /><br />The two-year-old elephant calf was part of a herd, which had stepped out of the forest to find food. It fell into a 15-feet well at Jamujhara village, Dhenkanal district, Odisha state during the night of May 11. <br /><br />Unable to rescue the calf, other elephants of the herd stood near the brick-lined well and trumpeted in distress. <br /><br />A resident of the village Prafulla Das said: “We heard the elephant cries all night long. They left the spot and returned to the forest only when we went to the well in the morning.”<br /><br />The villagers informed the forest department officials about the incident, who rushed to the well and saw the calf desperately trying to get out.<br /><br />They used an excavator to dig the land and create a path to help the calf climb out. <br /><br />It was then sent back to the forest in the direction of the herd with the help of firecrackers. <br /><br />The rescue operation that started at 8am lasted for four hours.
