A female elephant calf who strayed into the Sevoke Military Station area of the Indian army on the northeast-end of Siliguri was rescued by foresters on Monday.

The calf, forest officials said, ran for six hours before it was caught and sent to the Gorumara National Park in Jalpaiguri and kept under observation at the pilkhana (enclosure) of pet elephants.

Sources said the Baikunthapur forest division got a call from the Indian army a little after midnight that a wild elephant and its calf had fallen in an open reservoir inside the military station campus.

A team from the Sarugara range of the forest division rushed to the area and found the two elephants struggling to get out of the reservoir. The foresters arranged an earthmover to break a part of the reservoir and make a passage for the animals to come out. Around 3am, the elephants got out of the reservoir, but the restless calf ran away. “The female adult elephant did not wait, but walked back to the forest,” the officer added.

Forest guards managed to grab the calf around 9am after it ran around for almost six hours on the campus.

A forest officer said it seemed that the adult female elephant and the female calf had wandered out of the nearby Baikunthapur forest.

“The calf was examined and sent to the Gorumara National Park. Vets examined it there as well,” said the forest officer.