ShreyaWhat Tourists Saw
The video posted ahead was taken by Richard Gardiner who had been filming the ordeal of the baby elephant for long. He said, “The baby elephant had become stuck upside down while the family was drinking from the watering hole, it had been stuck for most of the day.” Even, “The older elephants had been attempting to free it by pushing it with their feet for several hours.” However, nothing the elephants did prove successful. It was then they raised cries for help.
Crying Out Loud
Richard Gardiner continued, “The elephants were becoming increasingly stressed and their cries for help had brought in a large herd.” It was in response to the cries of these elephants that the rangers came to the rescue of the baby elephant. In the video, it can be seen that they have made the herd scatter and move far away from the baby elephant, against their wishes.
Helping Hands
The baby was still crying for its elders, surprised that they left it in a puddle, it was scared of the humans around, little did it realize that they were there to help. One of the rangers actually got waist deep in the mud to help the baby. Elephants are heavy creatures and even their babies cannot be lifted by one or even two humans. All the rangers that can be seen in the video had to put in all their strength and even that did not seem to work out for a while.
Three’s A Crowd
3 of them had to get down in the pit to help lift the baby. One of the rangers was standing outside with his gun, to scare off any members of the herd but they were nowhere to be seen and that was not good because if and when the baby was rescued it had to be united with the herd. One of the members went to get a rope from the jeep to try to tie the elephant and pull it out.
Roping It Out
This part of the rangers’ rescue attempt is not captured on the video clearly. When the rangers failed to get the elephant out with their hands one of them got a rope. They tied it to the baby’s front leg and pull it out but that too was of no avail. The baby elephant was too heavy for them to pull out. Meanwhile, the baby was freaking out more and more.
Pat Pat Pat
After failing at trying to pull the elephant out the rangers thought of employing another strategy. The baby was too heavy and the rangers realized the limit to their power in being able to push it out of the mud with their limited numbers. So instead of trying to rescue the baby out, they started patting the mud around it so that it got more space to work its legs. And this different strategy started to work out, however, it was not a happy ending for the baby.