Dramatic pictures have captured the desperate – but ultimately tragic – effort to rescue a stricken elephant trapped a swamp in India.
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.
At one point a mahout, or elephant rider, climbed on to the lifeless creature to attach a line around the animal’s body.
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.
But as the time dragged on, optimism gave way to a pessimism.
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.
After more than six hours the elephant was finally pulled clear of the quicksand and onto the banks where a vet administered glucose in a desperate.
According the police, Ayyappan was brought but the elephant died while it was given medical aid.
It is not clear why Ayyappan wandered into the lethal quicksands.
But the edge of the swap was thick with debris and plant matter which may have given the impression of firm ground.
A vet administers glucose to an elephant in a last-ditch attempt to revive the animal – but it died shortly after