Villagers and wildllife officers in southeast Sri Lanka worked together to rescue an elephant that had become trapped in a canal for more than 10 hours. <br /><br />The elephant was rescued from Maduru Oya's Z.D main canal near Medagama on April 13, after wandering out from the nearby Aluthwewa forest reserve.<br /><br />The elephant, fell into the main canal from the Verarana area in Aralaganwila, but was washed around 10km downstream before being rescued. <br /><br />The wildlife officials of Veheragala followed the elephant for a while and rescued the elephant through the iron sluice gate at the Medagama power generation unit.<br /><br />The rescued elephant was then pushed into the nearby forest by the wildlife officials. The wild elephant was around 9-foot-tall and estimated to be around 40 years old.
