Siliguri, Oct. 12: A baby elephant, stuck in a dry nullah skirting a tea estate, called for its mother through the day but in vain.

Foresters rescued the baby trapped since last night around 5pm after they were almost convinced that the herd had “rejected” the little one.

Efforts to locate the herd bore fruit hours after the rescue, but not the second half of the mission: to reunite the baby with it.

“The calf yelled several times but none came near it. Our staff members could not do anything except to return with it,” said Sailesh Anand, the Baikanthapur divisional forest officer.

Harsh it may sound, but that is the way it is in the wild, said Malbazar warden D.C. Das. “Mothers usually do not abandon calves which are fit and healthy. However, in case it senses any problem, the calf is left behind.”

The one-and-a-half-month-old male taken to the pet elephants’ camp at Gorumara National Park may well have been suffering from some ailment like Ganeshi, found alone near Bagdogra in June. Ganeshi had died within a month.

A herd of around 100 elephants has been roaming the Targhera forest around Odlabari Tea Estate in Jalpaiguri district, about 45km from Siliguri town.

Tea garden workers saw the baby in the four-five feet deep drain this morning.

“The animal was shrieking and trumpeting as loudly as it could, probably trying to invite the mother’s attention,” said Balbir Singh Jass of the local Nature and Adventure Society who went to the spot with forest officials.

They stayed at a safe distance for several hours to make sure that the herd was not scared away.

However, as the day rolled, the guards found the calf dehydrating and offered it saline. “It took three bottles and became fit by late afternoon,” an official said.

When the herd was not visible even after sunset, the rescue of the three-foot elephant began.