A three-year-old elephant calf, which fell into an empty water reservoir, was rescued by foresters in Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) of Alipurduar on Sunday.

Sources said that residents of Adma, a forest village in the BTR area, could hear shrieks of wild elephants since early morning. Around 7am, as they came out to look, they found the calf trapped in the empty reservoir, shrieking continuously and trying to climb the walls of the water tank.

Foresters were informed. Teams from the forest range and the wildlife squad broke a part of the concrete wall and pulled out the calf with a rope, the entire process taking almost an hour.

An adult female elephant, who seemed to be the mother, stood at a distance.

“This worried us as there are instances that once elephant calves come in contact with humans, mothers or herdsdo not accept it. Thankfully, in this case, after the elephant calf was rescued, the mother accepted it,” said Buddharaj Sewa, the field director of BTR.