Wild elephant rescued from ditch in Odisha...

A wild elephant was rescued from a ditch after a five-hour long operation by personnel of the Forest Department and the Fire Brigade near Alarigarh under Odisha’s Berhampur Forest Division on Sunday.

The pachyderm was a semi-adult female, who had strayed away from a 14-member elephant herd. 

According to Berhampur Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Amlan Nayak, around 40 personnel and an excavator was used for the rescue operation. The rescued pachyderm was a semi-adult female who had strayed away from a 14-member wild elephant herd that had been travelling through the elephant corridor near the spot of the incident.

The ditch was located in an orchard at the foothills of Landasikha near Alarigarh in the Digaphandi forest range. The stranded elephant had fallen into the ditch during the wee hours of Sunday. Locals found the stranded animal and informed the Forest officials, who rushed to the spot. Later, the Forest officials called for the Fire Brigade to assist with the rescue operation.

One side of the ditch was dug up and flattened into a slope by the excavator, to enable the stranded animal to come out.

After it was rescued from the ditch, the elephant was let out into a nearby jungle. The ditch had been dug up to store water for agriculture.