A Quick Reaction Team of the Army on Friday in Guwahati rescued an elephant calf that had fallen into a ditch inside the Narangi Cantonment in Guwahati after getting separated from its mother and her herd. The baby jumbo was also provided with first aid by the Army vets for an injury it sustained on its right forelimb during the fall.
Giving details, Guwahati-based Defence PRO Lt Col Suneet Newton said the elephant calf stuck in a ditch was first spotted by a routine parameter patrol of the 14 Ammunition Depot inside the Cantonment early Friday morning.
It was stuck in a ditch near the boundary wall of the ammunition depot and was writhing in pain, he said. The elephant calf was part of a herd that had strayed out from the 78.64 sq km Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary that shares boundary with the Narangi cantonment.
While the patrol party informed the Col Sanjiv Vohra, Commandant of the Depot, the latter immediately activated his Quick Reaction Team along and also informed the local forest officials. But even before a forest department team reached the spot, the QRT had already managed to rescue the elephant calf and took it to a shady place where it was fed with flour, fruits and water.
An Army veterinary team that was also pressed into service on the other hand provided immediate first aid to the calf and also administered pain killers to render much required relief to it. The elephant calf however was yet to be reunited with its mother and her herd. In a similar incident in April 2014, another elephant calf separated from its herd was rescued from a pond by the Army personal of the same Ammunition Depot.
The 78.64 sq km Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary that is located in the eastern fringes of Guwahati city is home to several species of wild animals including elephants, slow loris, Chinese pangolin, Assamese macaque, capped langur, hoolock gibbon, leopard, sambar, barking deer, porcupine, and jungle cat.
With several species of birds like lesser adjutant, greater adjutant, white-backed vulture, slender-billed vulture, Khaleej pheasant, green Imperial pigeon and lesser pied hornbill, Amchang is also a favourite destination of bird-watchers.