It all began with an alert by a local man on a tractor, who was on his way from the Vanabhadra Kaliamman temple in Mettupalayam to Thekkampatti and saw a cow elephant blocking the road with a herd in the background.
It is not every day that one sees a baby elephant being carried by a human, but trust us, once in a blue moon, miracles do happen!
When people saw a picture of a man carrying an elephant calf going viral on social media, little did they know that it was a mission undertaken by an official from the forest department, last Tuesday, to help the baby pachyderm reach its mother in Nellimala near Ooty’s Mettupalayam forest range.
Interestingly, it all began with an alert by a local man on a tractor, who was on his way from the Vanabhadra Kaliamman temple in Mettupalayam to Thekkampatti and saw a cow elephant blocking the road with a herd in the background.
Forest officials were called in immediately to send the herd back to the forest by bursting crackers, and it was then that they heard the cries of a baby elephant from a canal nearby. They realised that the calf had unfortunately separated from the mother, and was stuck in the mud. Following hours of toil, they were able to extricate the calf.