Berhampur, June 12: Forest department officials today rescued a three-month-old male baby elephant from a well at Biruli Bahadapalli village near Rambha in Ganjam district.

The elephant sustained injuries on his rear left leg and is under treatment at Biruligada near Khallikote. According to some villagers of Bahadapalli, which is surrounded by forests, one herd of elephants strayed into the area at about 8pm and the baby elephant got trapped inside the well.

“The elephants were making loud noises throughout the night. When we reached the spot in the morning, we found the baby elephant trapped there and immediately informed the forest department officials,” said a villager.

K.K. Nayak, ranger of the Khallikote Forest Range, said about 20 staff and local people swung into action on receiving the information.

“There is a possibility of presence of other jumbos of the herd nearby. The water level in the well is 3 to 4 feet. We got down into the well and lifted the baby elephant with a rope. It took us a few hours,” said Nayak.

The number of elephants in the herd was 18, including six babies, he said. “We have kept the injured baby elephant at Biruligada, about 2km from Bahadapalli village. It is under treatment,” he said.

K.C. Mishra, assistant conservator of forests, said officials had tried to hand over charge of the rescued baby elephant to Sobha, a female elephant engaged in Operation Gajanan in Ganjam.

However, she did not accept the baby. “We are waiting for the mother of the baby elephant and expect that she must be staying nearby. Once we find its mother, we will immediately hand over the elephant to her. The last option is to take the baby elephant to the Nandankanan zoo,” Mishra said.

“Forty villages in Ganjam block have been badly affected due to elephant menace for the past seven years,” said chairman of Ganjam block Surath Pahana.

“There is no elephant corridor in Chandaka. The herds chased from Ganjam are returning again. You can find elephants in the belt even in areas from Biruligada to Ranibar hills,” he said, while demanding appropriate measures to tackle the elephant menace.

Bira Tarai, Kamal Tarai and Ramesh Chandra Sitho, residents of Birulipalli, said that Operation Gajanan, which was launched by the forest department to chase away the elephant from Ganjam and Khallikote blocks in Ganjam district to the Chandaka forest in last September, had failed.

“Elephants have killed six people and injured 20 in the last one year. We demanded immediate action by the government to tackle the elephant menace. However, the authorities harassed us by registering a case against 15 of us,” said one of the villagers.