Baby elephant rescued from open drain in south India

Description

A dramatic footage of an elephant calf being rescued form an open drain in southern India has emerged. The incident took place on March 24 near Anthiyur town, located in Erode district of Tamil Nadu state.

According to visuals, a few people were seen moving towards an open drain after spotting an adult elephant standing near it. As they move closed, footage showed a baby jumbo moving inside the drain. The jumbo sent out several distress signal as it trumpeted loudly. Seeing the distressed calf, one man jumped inside the drain, which scared the young pachyderm. It kept running to and fro inside the drain, but could not scale the high walls.

Finally, several men went inside the drain and trapped the pachyderm. They slowly lifted the elephant, while one man took care of its trunk. The elephant was rolled over and quickly stood on its feet.

Chaos descended there after, as the calf started running after its rescuers, who ran helter skelter.

Reports said the young elephant was reunited with its mother and no untoward incident took place.

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Assam: 6 kg Nepal-bound ivory seized

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) Guwahati zonal unit has seized ivory weighing about 6 kg from two persons, including a contractual railway employee, near Guwahati Railway Station.

DRI officials said that this confirmed an elephant tusk smuggling trail from within a certain radius of Assam’s Kaziranga National Park to Nepal via the Chicken’s Neck corridor in West Bengal.

Wildlife crime investigators had a whiff of this trail when DRI detectives seized 12.41 kg of ivory from a bus in northern West Bengal’s Siliguri town on February 15.

“Acting on a tip-off, our officials caught two persons near Guwahati Railway Station about 1 p.m. on Saturday and seized 24 pieces of ivory weight 5.838 kg from them,” a DRI officer who declined to be identified said.

Railway employee involved

The two men were identified as Badrul Hussain of Hojai from central Assam and Suraj Kumar Das from West Bengal. Mr. Das is a contractual railway employee working as a coach attendant of the daily Howrah-Guwahati Saraighat Express train.

They were caught as Mr. Das was in the process of receiving the ivory package from Mr. Hussain.

Interrogation revealed that Mr. Hussain had received the package from an animal body parts trader in Hojai. Mr. Das was expected to deliver it to a dealer in New Jalpaiguri (railway station for Siliguri) for smuggling out to Nepal.

“Wildlife officials have confirmed the ivory was extracted from five adult and sub-adult elephants killed, in all likelihood, in Karbi Anglong district of central Assam,” the DRI officer said.

The hills of Karbi Anglong, adjoining Kaziranga National Park, is where animals take refuge when the rhino habitat with a large population of elephants is submerged during floods.

Officials said the 12 kg ivory seized in Siliguri earlier this year were sourced from north-eastern Assam’s Lakhimpur district, close to the border of Kaziranga’s Northern Range.


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Assam: Two smugglers held with 24 ivory pieces in Guwahati

The directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) on Sunday sleuths seized 24 pieces of ivory here while a contractual railway employee was collecting them here on Saturday.

The consignment, weighing around 5.838kg, was seized near Guwahati railway station around 1pm when Suraj Kumar Das, a coach attendant of Saraighat Express, was collecting it from Badrul Hussain in central Assam’s Hojai district.

“Interrogation of the duo revealed that Hussain picked up the packets containing the ivory from a person at Hojai for delivery to Das, who would deliver it to another person at New Jalpaiguri, for smuggling to Nepal through the border in north Bengal,” The Telegraph quoted a DRI official as saying. Das and Hussain were arrested.

Wildlife officials confirmed the tusks were extracted after killing at least five adult and sub-adult elephants, and since the ivory was sourced from Hojai, it is likely the elephants were killed in Karbi Anglong.

It is a known fact that endangered species are regularly being slaughtered for their parts, especially because of the rising demand in the international market, a DRI statement said.


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Elephant kills cyclist in Dooars of Bengal, Leopard evacuated safely

In a fresh man-animal conflict a tusker today trampled to death a man while he was cycling on the highway to hisworking place in the Dooars of West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district, forestranger Dulal Ghosh said.

The killing of man by the adult elephant happened in broad day light around Targhera jungle checkpost.

Eyewitnesses said the pachyderm came out of the forest on the state highway and picked up the panicked cyclist, who stopped paddling before the jumbo, from its trunk and hurled on metal road and stumped on the body. The deceased, identified as Priyanath Biswas (40), a carpenter by profession.

The body was sent for postmortem. The ranger said the bereaved family would be compensated accordingly. Elsewhere, a live leopard was today got into a trap inside the Simulbari tea estate. The leopard was also evacuated safely into a jungle.

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Speeding Train Plows Into Elephants in India, Killing 5 Animals

NEW DELHI — The night train to Silchar was moving fast — too fast, the authorities say.

As it chugged into a forested area of northeastern India on Saturday night, a group of villagers waved their flashlights frantically, urging the driver to slow down. He didn’t know why, but he soon found out.

Ahead in the darkness, a large herd of elephants was ambling across the railway tracks. When the train driver finally saw what was in front of him, he hit the emergency brake, railway officials said, but it was too late.

The 14-car passenger train plowed right into the herd. Two calves and two adult elephants were killed instantly, and an adult elephant that was badly injured died on Monday. Some local news reports said that several baby elephants had not even moved as the train approached, and that adult elephants had sought to protect them by surrounding them.

Indian forestry officials said the warnings had been ignored for a simple reason: The train was running 10 minutes late.

“The driver was trying to cover up the time,” said P. Sivakumar, a senior forestry officer in northern Assam, the state where the accident happened. The incident is now under investigation.


In some parts of India, especially in the northeast, it is quite common for elephants to pass through populated regions or to step across railway tracks — or even four-lane highways — in search of food. Many areas have been designated elephant corridors, where drivers are supposed to proceed with caution.

In the case over the weekend, the train operator was traveling above the speed limit of 30 kilometers, or about 20 miles, an hour, forestry officials said. Earlier in the day, the Forestry Department had sent several urgent notifications to railway operators that a large elephant herd was moving through the Habaipur area, about 250 kilometers north of Silchar, near India’s border with Bangladesh. The area is deep green on most maps, and a well-known refuge for elephants.

This episode is the latest in an unfortunate pattern. As recently as December, a train in Assam killed five adult elephants, including one that was pregnant.

But in India’s wildlife community, the latest accident seems to have reverberated more, adding to the sadness and outrage that has been building.

“The railways need to be held accountable,’’ said Prerna Singh Bindra, a conservationist and writer. “How come we have not learned our lessons?”

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Sick elephant dies, calf rescued

According to a source, one Ramu spotted the elephant lying unconscious and its calf roaming around as he was passing by Pappathi Farm in Jarathal around 6am and informed the villagers.

People soon gathered at the spot and alerted the forest department. The villagers made an attempt to feed sugarcane and corn to the animals, but the calf didn't let them approach its mother elephant.

Forest officials, along with veterinary doctor Asokan, reached the spot. This time too, the calf didn't allow the veterinary doctor to approach the adult elephant to offer treatment. Asokan subsequently tranquilised the calf to provide medical help to the adult elephant. But, the elephant died.

The forest officials rescued the calf and took it to Sennampatti forest range. "We are providing treatment to the calf," they said.

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Elephant electrocuted

A wild adult elephant has died after coming in contact with a high voltage wire dangling low above the ground in a forest area under Sonapur range.

According to sources, a group of elephants were seen moving around in residential areas at Bejni in search of food during the last few days. Local people found the dead jumbo this morning and informed to the forest department. After the post-mortem examinations, the pachyderm was buried on the spot.

The local people have alleged that the elephant’s death was a result of the negligence of authorities of the forest and electricity departments.

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Coimbatore heatwave and fodder shortage kill 8 elephants

Eight elephants have died in Coimbatore forest range as a result of a severe heatwave in the area. The Forest department has said the heatwave has caused a drought in the area leading to shortage of fodder.

According to the Times of India, the District forest officer (DFO) S Ramasubramanian has said that that more elephants would go without food in the coming days if the region did not receive rain. He also added that the department can provide water facilities to the elephants, but they cannot provide fodder.

The Coimbatore forest division is spread across 711 sqkm has seven forest ranges - Coimbatore, Madukkarai, Bouluvampatti Periyanaickenpalayam, Karamadai, Mettupalayam and Sirumugai. Severe drought has taken a heavy toll in the forest areas of Madukkkarai, Sirmugai, Thadagam, Marudhamalai, Mettupalayam and a few more areas which have run out of green and fresh fodder for the elephants.

"An adult elephant needs 250 kg of food every day. So it wanders more than 12 hours in the forest for food. The severe drought has hit the forests and the elephants are struggling to survive due to non-availability of green fodder," said DFO Ramasubramanian.

"If the situation continues for a month, many elephants could die in the forests," added Ramasubramanian.

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Elephant to be brought to Bandhavgarh National Park from Bengaluru

A pachyderm will be translocated from Bengaluru to Bandhavgarh National Park.

"There are 12 tuskers in the Park in Bandhavgarh, out of it five are minors. The adult elephants are engaged for patrolling and rescue operations," Field Director Mridul Pathak said.

He said a team from the Parked arrived Bengaluru to select the elephant. He said the tusker was being brought when the park management was annoyed over the less number of elephants.

Mr Pathak said the management demanded that the government provide ten elephants for the Park. However, planning was being chalked out to bring the tusker from Bengaluru, he added.

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