A month-old elephant calf was reunited with its herd on Tuesday, after it got stuck inside an illegally hollowed-out mine in Devala, in the Gudalur forest division.
Forest Department staff, who reached the gold mines reserve forest in Devala, managed to rescue the calf and helped shepherd it to its herd, which had left the area.
Continuous monitoring by the Forest Department of herds in the Gudalur division helped locate the elephant herd to which the calf belonged.
The herd of seven elephants, on hearing the calf, chased away the Forest staff and accepted the calf back into the herd, before fleeing into a surrounding reserve forest.
Staff from the Forest Department spent the entire day with the calf, and helped it regain its strength by feeding it baby formula, before they undertook the walk with the elephant calf by their side to find his herd.
