GUWAHATI, Dec 3: Forest officials in western Assam’s Goalpara district on Friday had to repeat their act of rescuing another herd of wild elephants trapped in a muddy pond, a day after using excavators to dig and create a path for five gentle giants to move into safer territory.
According to a forest official, six wild elephants were trapped in the pond located in the Choibari area of Lakhipur since about 3am on Friday.
“They have been rescued and observed to be healthy as they made their way gradually to a nearby jungle. However, to remove this danger zone once and for all, we are taking measures to completely fill up the pond with earth by today itself,” the official said.
It may be mentioned that the rescue act for the second consecutive day was relatively easier as the forest team had on Thursday used two excavators to dig one side of the four-foot deep pond to save the herd trapped since Wednesday midnight.
“However, since there was another herd of wild elephants blocking our way near the area, the rescue operation (on Friday) had to be deferred by an hour as a precaution. The slime and mud accumulation in the pond had made it difficult for the elephants to come out of it through the path created though,” he said.
Both the herds were trapped in a similar manner and believed to have come down to Assam from the hills bordering Meghalaya.
Human-elephant conflict, in Goalpara particularly, has been a major concern with incidents of wild elephants, raiding houses and damaging crops during the night hours, commonly occurring from time to time.
“Nine persons have been trampled by wild elephants in the recent past. Our sincere plea to the government is to take measures immediately to save human lives in the area from the conflict,” a resident said.