WATCH: Female elephant rescued from water tank in Coonoor

COIMBATORE: A wild elephant which slipped into a water tank at a tribal village in Coonoor was successfully rescued by the forest department on Friday.

According to the forest department, a female elephant fell into an empty tank at the Kozhikarai tribal village in Coonoor during the early morning hours. The villagers spotted the elephant struggling to emerge from the tank and informed the forest department.

Soon, a team of forest department staff arrived and broke the walls of the tank to facilitate the elephant's way out. After nearly four hours of sustained efforts, the elephant was moved out of the tank, and it retreated into the forest area.

Meanwhile, villagers urged the forest department to identify concrete structures and fences erected, which block the migratory pathway of elephants, causing them to change their course, and end up intruding into human settlements.

In another similar incident, an elephant calf is suspected to have died in an accidental fall in Masinagudi. The carcass of the male elephant, aged barely one year, was spotted by a team of frontline staff who were on a routine patrol in the Singara Forest Range on Thursday evening.

On Friday afternoon, A postmortem examination was carried out by a veterinarian from Theppakadu. "The male calf could have slipped to death in an accidental fall from a mountain slope. Samples have been collected from the carcass for further clinical examination to ascertain the exact cause of its death," an official said.