A wild elephant got stranded in the Teesta river for around six hours on Monday morning as water levels of the river suddenly increased.

Around 7am, an elephant herd was spotted crossing the river in Bhaishdoba of Changmari that is under the Kranti block of Jalpaiguri district.

“Other members of the herd went on trudging through the river and reached the other bank. This elephant, however, fell back and eventually got stranded as water level of the river increased. We suspect it might have some injury in its feet,” said a forest officer who reached the spot.

The foresters tried to use ropes to fasten the animal so that it could be pulled towards the bank but failed.

Eventually, around 1.15pm, the elephant itself started moving from the location where it was stranded and managed to reach the bank. The jumbo then entered the Baikunthapur forest.

In another development, the foresters finally recovered the carcass of an elephant calf in Banarhat of the district on Monday.

For the past four days, the calf’s mother had been moving with the carcass wrapped in its trunk, accompanied by a herd of elephants. They had strayed into a number of locations, carrying the carcass, which the foresters have mentioned as a rare incident.

On Monday morning, the mother elephant left the carcass and headed towards the forest.

Foresters, who were keeping a close watch on the herd, didn’t delay and called for a recovery van to recover the calf’s carcass, which had started decomposing.

“A post-mortem of the carcass would be conducted to ascertain its cause of death. It would be cremated then,” said a forest officer.