The villagers in this remote area heard something strange noise in the morning. Soon they found that it’s a mournful trumpeting of a victimized elephant that has fallen in to an agricultural well.
But, they cannot approach the elephant to rescue him as they are not sure how this wild elephant will react, if they get any closer. So they have informed wildlife officers.The officers as they come, inspect the field, to plan out the rescue mission.
The well the elephant has fallen into is narrow and deep and cannot be dug manually. Elephant is not stuck inside but is floating in the water, behaving with aggression. A large herd of elephants have invaded in to the village last night and they have raided the cultivated crops in the village. They’ve trampled and uprooted the maniocs and other crops.
In their return to the forest, this poor elephant might have faced with this unexpected disaster.It is not practical to break the well to haul out the elephant. So the officers immediately start filling the well with water using a motorized pump, as it will help the animal float up and step out of the well. This is the law of buoyancy in action.
The villagers do not have any idea about this rescue method and they are getting closer to the well to see the state of the animal. Before the officials arrived here, the villagers have given banana stem to the elephant to eat. That is what is floating on the water. The muddy water makes it evident that the elephant would have struggled a lot in pain and distress throughout the night.
This is a drought season to this area. So finding water was the most difficult task. Any how the officers were able to bring a water bowser from adjacent village. This is just another incident of the elephant-human conflict. With the increase of population, people start clear cutting the forests and moving into them making them human settlements. Human activity increases, they start cultivating and developing infrastructure causing further reduction of wildlife habitats.
Under these circumstances, wild elephants get pocketed in small patches of jungle areas. As a result of their movement being restricted, and their food and water sources being depleted, elephants wander into the cultivated areas which were formerly their habitats. There, they find a ready source of food or even stored food which is not spared. With their large size and equally large appetite, elephants can easily destroy an entire cultivation of a farmer in a single night, creating terrifying menace as elephants are messy eaters. This tussle between wild elephants and people is a dilemma that has been around for so many years.The results of implementing Archimedes’ law are turning out to be positive.
The elephant has almost reached the top. He must be quite tired by now after struggling for so many hours. However, the observers are still doubtful about the whole thing and they fear the way the animal will react once it is out of the well. Even then, people just want to help the elephant and their only wish is to see him out of danger. True, there is a human-elephant conflict but there also seems to be a soft spot for these gigantic creatures in human hearts.
They deploy a JCB machine to dig a slope from surface , to make an incline path for the elephant to easily scale up the slope and move back to the forest. Now when they start doing this, the elephant assesses a possible threat, becomes more aggressive and starts struggling inside the well while the officers continue their task.
The elephant starts moving up the path and just then, officers set fire crackers not to harm him but to guide him in the direction of the forest. This is important because, in case the elephant suddenly turns the other way, it could harm people out of aggression as it has happened in previous instances. Therefore, setting firecrackers at this point is a smart, harmless trick which does good for both the elephant and the people. The elephant climbs out and runs towards the forest while the villagers shout of joy and relief.
This animal must be feeling hungry and uncomfortable too. So the officers let him go into the forest for now. However, they intend to keep an eye on this animal and locate him to treat his trunk and the other injuries.