Dozens of villagers battled for more than six hours to pull the stranded animal, named Ayyappan after a Hindu deity, from a quagmire on the banks of the Vembanad Lake, near the southern city of Kochi.
Desperation: A mahout prepares to tie a rope around the elephant named Ayyappan as it sinks deeper into the quagmire on the outskirts of Kochi, southern India
Frantic: Two elephant riders struggle to attach the line around the exhausted animal as it sinks deeper into the mud
During the early stages, the large crowd which gathered to watch the rescue unfold, held out hope the elephant might be freed in time.
The exhausted elephant appeared to be unresponsive during the last hours of the rescue.
Battle: The huge body of the elephant is dragged to the edge of the swamp as villagers struggle to pull its clear of the choking mud
Hope: Rescuers finally manage to drag the enormous animal from the swamp and haul it on to the banks – as dozens of villagers look on
Its eyes remained closed and trunk limp as safety lines were attached to a winch on the banks and people began to haul it out of the thick mud.
A vet administers glucose to an elephant in a last-ditch attempt to revive the animal – but it died shortly after