A one-and-half month old elephant calf died after it fell into a drain in the plantations of a tea estate located in the Nagrakata block of Jalpaiguri early on Thursday.

Forest officers said the animal died as other members of the herd to which it belonged, tried to pull it out of the drain. As the elephants inched closer to the drain to drag the calf, the earth caved in and the calf got buried under the rubble.

On Wednesday night, a herd of 20 to 25 elephants entered the plantations of Debpara while moving to the Reti Forest from Diana Forest.

“While moving through the tea garden, the calf fell into a drain at the plantations following which other jumbos tried to rescue the calf. We could hear the elephants honking throughout the night. However, as the elephants moved near the drain, the earth on both sides of the drain gave away and buried the calf,” said Budhua Topno, a garden worker.

On Thursday morning, some garden workers spotted the calf’s carcass and informed the managerial staff. Soon, they told the foresters.

The workers mentioned that at dawn, the herd left for Reti Forest as they failed to get the calf out of the drain.

Foresters from Diana forest range and Binnaguri wildlife squad reached the spot. Also, Sima Chowdhury, an honorary wildlife warden of the state forest department, visited the garden.

“It is an unfortunate incident. It is evident that other members of the herd tried for hours to rescue the calf but failed,” said Chowdhury.

During the past few weeks, incidents of elephant depredation have increased in Nagrakata block, prompting farmers of a number of villages to start harvesting paddy ahead of time.

In total, around 500 farmers, who are based in places like Nagrakatabusty, Sukhanibusty and Khasbusty which are on the fringes of Gorumara National Park and Champramari Wildlife Sanctuary are cutting away paddy from their fields because every day, particularly in the evening and night hours, elephants enter their field, devour crops and also damage them.

“As we are harvesting early, we could be able to salvage only one-fifth of what would have been the actual yield if we could harvest the paddy in appropriate time. But recurring incidents of elephant depredation have left us worried. We cannot risk keeping the semi-ripe paddy in the field as there is every chance that many of us would lose the entire crop if we wait for some more weeks,” said a farmer.