Indian elephant rescued, finally

The elephant that came floating down with the flood waters of the Brahmaputra-Jamuna from the Indian state of Assam on June 27 was finally put to sleep by a tranquiliser gun by forest department people yesterday (Thursday).
This was their second attempt after the first  dart failed to tranquilise the animal and another missed it.
The dart hit the pachyderm at about 2 pm, when the animal walked into the highlands off the Jamuna. Dazed, it hobbled and fell into a ditch at Kamrabad village of Sharishabari. Ropes were tied to the animal, and with villagers lending a helping hand, it was pulled out of the water, Asim Mullick, an inspector of the Forest Department’s Wildlife Circle who had been leading a 17-member rescue team since July 28, told The Independent.
He said they were waiting for the nearly five-tonne female elephant to come out of the slumber. The next step would be taking it away from the area and providing it with its favourite banana plants and treatment.
A veterinarian of the Forest Department has been kept waiting, said the The Independent's Jamalpur Correspondent Mukhlesur Rahman, who watched the proceedings of putting the elephant to sleep.
Earlier, a three-member rescue team from the Assam Forest Department, led by its official Ritesh Bhattacharya with a veterinarian, gave up their efforts to entice the beast from the flood waters of the Jamuna and tranquilise it ashore so that it would not drown.
But all their efforts failed because of too much noise by hundreds of villagers desperately trying to keep the huge animal off their homes and crop fields all the way down from Madarganj, the neighbouring upazila of Sharishabari.
The elephant had been stepping from one Jamuna char (sand bar) to another. The more the rescuers tried to tranquilise it,  the farther it waded into the water because of the noise created by villagers beating drums, canisters and shining torchlights.
The Indian officials called off their mission on Sunday and left for Dhaka on way to Guwahati, capital of Assam, on Tuesday. But after its rescue, the question remains where will the elephant be taken.
While some officials want to take it to the Bangabandhu Safari  Park or zoo. But others prefer it to be released among a herd of wild elephants roaming the hills and forests of Ghazni in Sherpur, the neighbouring district of Jamalpur, for easy transportation.
A former head of the Wildlife Circle of the Forest Department, Tapan Kumar Dey, who was called in to join the rescue mission with the Indians, had earlier said that the Assam officials agreed to leave the animal in Bangladesh as a gift. He suggested that it should be released among wild elephants of the nearby Ghazni forest.

Indian elephant rescued, finally

The elephant that came floating down with the flood waters of the Brahmaputra-Jamuna from the Indian state of Assam on June 27 was finally put to sleep by a tranquiliser gun by forest department people yesterday (Thursday). This was their second attempt after the first dart failed to tranquilise the animal and another missed it. The dart hit the pachyderm at about 2 pm, when the animal walked into the highlands off the Jamuna. Dazed, it hobbled and fell into a ditch at Kamrabad village of Sharishabari. Ropes were tied to the animal, and with villagers lending a helping hand, it was pulled out of the water, Asim Mullick, an inspector of the Forest Departments Wildlife Circle who had been leading a 17-member rescue team since July 28, told The Independent. He said they were waiting for the nearly five-tonne female elephant to come out of the slumber. The next step would be taking it away from the area and providing it with its favourite banana plants and treatment. A veterinarian of the Forest Department has been kept waiting, said the The Independents Jamalpur Correspondent Mukhlesur Rahman, who watched the proceedings of putting the elephant to sleep. Earlier, a three-member rescue team from the Assam Forest Department, led by its official Ritesh Bhattacharya with a veterinarian, gave up their efforts to entice the beast from the flood waters of the Jamuna and tranquilise it ashore so that it would not drown. But all their efforts failed because of too much noise by hundreds of villagers desperately trying to keep the huge animal off their homes and crop fields all the way down from Madarganj, the neighbouring upazila of Sharishabari. The elephant had been stepping from one Jamuna char (sand bar) to another. The more the rescuers tried to tranquilise it, the farther it waded into the water because of the noise created by villagers beating drums, canisters and shining torchlights. The Indian officials called off their mission on Sunday and left for Dhaka on way to Guwahati, capital of Assam, on Tuesday. But after its rescue, the question remains where will the elephant be taken. While some officials want to take it to the Bangabandhu Safari Park or zoo. But others prefer it to be released among a herd of wild elephants roaming the hills and forests of Ghazni in Sherpur, the neighbouring district of Jamalpur, for easy transportation. A former head of the Wildlife Circle of the Forest Department, Tapan Kumar Dey, who was called in to join the rescue mission with the Indians, had earlier said that the Assam officials agreed to leave the animal in Bangladesh as a gift. He suggested that it should be released among wild elephants of the nearby Ghazni forest.