Forest Department officials in Tamil Nadu successfully rescued a juvenile male elephant that fell into an agricultural pond in the Madukkarai forest range. Notably, the male elephant aged about four, who was part of a herd, fell into the pond early Thursday morning. Officials found the distressed animal when they were patrolling the forest range. The department immediately launched a rescue operation to help the elephant. A video showing the efforts of forest personnel and the elephant’s subsequent rescue has been shared by news agency ANI.
”An elephant was rescued safely by forest officials after it was found trapped in an agricultural pond. The officials were patrolling the Madukkarai forest range in Coimbatore when they found the elephant, earlier today,” the video was captioned on X.
Several internet users thanked the forest department for their timely effort and actions, and extended words of appreciation.
Due to a rise in the frequency of wild elephants entering villages bordering forests in the Coimbatore district, the Forest Department has increased the number of staff engaged in night patrols.
Recently, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) based surveillance mechanism, also started recording elephant movements on a railway track in Madhukkarai. The surveillance system has 12 towers fitted with both thermal and normal cameras, installed at strategic locations along the railway track for early detection of animal movement, Additional Chief Secretary, Environment Climate Change & Forests, Supriya Sahu, said.
Notably, this area has seen several tragic elephant deaths due to collisions with trains.
