In a poor Sri Lankan town, several people and a wildlife rescue team pulled an elephant calf from the open drain that it had helplessly fallen into last Sunday.

In the video footage of the incident, officials are seen knocking out the shallow but rather narrow drain and breaking the concrete surrounding it. It allowed them to widen the hole at the top and lift the animal out using rope tied around the baby elephant’s two front feet.

The baby elephant could also be seen being given and showered with water for a little cooling.

After it was successfully pulled out of the drain, the frightened calf was taken to the hospital for medical treatment. It is said to have suffered a broken leg.

According to Huffington Post, elephants apparently roam free on the streets of southern port-town Hambantota.

Other animal rescue efforts around the world, however, did not turn out well.

Earlier this May at Yellowstone National Park, a newborn bison was “rescued” by tourists and taken to a park facility after thinking that it needed help. Little did they know that interfering with newborn animals could lead their mothers to reject them.

The National Park Service (NPS) said that park rangers tried reuniting the calf with the rest of the herd but were unable to do so. They decided to euthanize the poor abandoned young due to safety issues after it constantly approached cars and park visitors along the road.

In a two-day workshop for emergency responders and veterinarians, Rebecca Gimenez – president of Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue Training Inc. in Alberta, Canada – emphasized preparedness as the first course of action.

“If plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 other letters,” said Gimenez of the need to consider all rescue options.

She lamented that statistics are hardly kept on accidents requiring large animal rescue, thus making it difficult for responders to form training.

She added, though, that the likes of the United Kingdom have already trained their firefighters – who often get the emergency calls – in technical rescue, leading many cattle and horses to be relatively safe out on the roads at present.

Photo: Caroline Campfield | Flickr