Even as the Darjeeling hills mourned separations and losses in the wake of Sunday’s torrential rain and landslides, a wild and wordless family was reunited by a forest team the same evening.
A newborn elephant calf was united with its mother hours after it had been swept away by the rain-fed Mechi river, which marks the border between India and Nepal.
“Due to heavy rainfall, an elephant calf trying to cross the river with its herd drifted away alone,” said Devesh Pandey, the Kurseong DFO.
The newborn was a part of a big herd of around 80 elephants moving around the Kolbari-Panighata stretch under Kurseong subdivision. Recently, the big herd further split into two groups. The smaller group, to which the calf belonged, was trying to enter India again from the Bahundangi area of Nepal when the swift currents of the rain-fed river swept it away.
“It is a female calf and a newborn as its umbilical cord was still visible,” said Pandey.
The calf entered paddy fields and started moving aimlessly.
Informed by villagers, forest officials rushed to the spot and with help from residents took the animal on a rescue vehicle for a thorough examination.
“After that, the elephant calf was fully covered with elephant dung picked up from Kolbari jungles,” said Pandey, adding that this was done to ensure that human odour was covered and the calf was accepted by the herd.
In the past, there have been instances of wild elephant herds refusing to accept a rescued calf after human touch.
Last year, Tamil Nadu foresters tried to unite a three-month-old male elephant calf with its mother eight times, but in vain.
DFO Pandey, however, said that early indications suggested that this elephant calf in Kurseong had been accepted by both its mother and its herd and that they were monitoring the herd closely.