The baby elephant, swept by the canal’s current, was finally rescued—its mother’s anxious trumpets turning to joyful cries of reunion.

For the past few weeks, elephants from the Western Ghats, which have caused a lot of anxiety by venturing into in Kerala towns resulting in the death of two people, have been splitting the social media in two over the ramifications involved in managing human-animal conflicts. This morning though, all stood united and rooted for both men and animals when a video of the rescue of a baby elephant by foresters in Pollachi was posted on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter)

”Our hearts are melting with joy to see the elephant mother raising her trunk to thank our foresters after they rescued and united a very young baby elephant with the mother. ”The baby had slipped and fallen into a canal in Pollachi in Coimbatore district in Tamil Nadu. The mother tried hard to rescue the baby but the young one was unable to come out due to strong water flow. Kudos to the team for their exceptional efforts which led to the successful reunion even though the operation was fraught with risks…,” Sahu posted.

”It was a very risky operation because initially the mother elephant was guarding the baby. In such instances, if we interfere, they usually charge at us. But when it realised that we were only trying to help, the mother elephant thankfully stepped back and watched us rescue from a distance. Time was of essence yesterday and even a slight delay could have changed the outcome,” said Ramasubramanian.

Sahu said it is the fifth rescue in the last two years by the Tamil Nadu Forest department, and the team has gained ‘some amount of expertise’ over the years. ”We are also focusing a lot on rewilding. The easiest thing to do is to get such rescued babies to elephant camps, but we try to reunite them with the mothers as much as possible. In the long run, that would be the best course of action,” said Sahu. Sahu also said as far as human-animal conflicts are concerned, no solution can be fruitful if it is not done as a team.

”It is not just about foresters doing their work. The Collector must be fully involved; the superintendent of the police must be in the loop. The political will should be there too,” said the IAS officer, who has been at the forefront of many such coordinated efforts by the Tamil Nadu Forest department.

Sahu also believes that working with the local community and gaining their trust is the key ultimately. ”A good, alert mechanism, ensuring no loss of life and timely ex-gratia in case of any unfortunate incident go a long way in building the trust of the people who are directly affected by the human-animal conflicts. And yes, the media plays an important role too – how they cover and what they focus on often makes a difference in creating awareness about the issue,” she added.