Article written by Lily Shanagher
Originally published by The Telegraph, 22 September 2026
Five Bengali men travelled nearly three miles by boat to reach three-day-old calf after it was swept away
A baby elephant has been rescued from drowning after fishermen saw its trunk poking out of the water.
The calf was separated from its herd while trying to cross the Teesta River in West Bengal and was swept away in the current.
Members of the North Bengal Fishermen’s Forum saw the calf and travelled nearly three miles by boat from Kranti-Punjab Dam to reach it.
Footage showed the men – named Mithu Das, Rajesh Das, Biswanath Das, Gopal Das and Bablu Das – rowing in a small wooden boat towards the calf’s trunk, which partially emerged from the water.
They approached the calf and pulled it out of the water before laying it on its side, exhausted, in the boat.
The men then released the elephant, which was found to be healthy, out onto dry land.
Fishermen rescued the calf and put it onto their boat before releasing it on land
It was later seen walking towards what appeared to be its mother.
Both mother and calf remain under forest department supervision.
“A three-or-four-day-old elephant calf was separated from its mother near Gajaldoba barrage,” Mudit Kumar, a divisional forest officer of Baikanthapur, told The Indian Express.
“We are not sure but they might have been trying to cross the river. While the mother was upstream in Gajaldoba, the calf was washed away 4km (2 and a half miles) downstream.”
Mr Kumar said the rescuers were initially worried that prolonged human touch would cause the mother to reject the elephant but were relieved to see she nursed her calf and the pair reunited.
The Baikanthapur forest division is known to have a large population of Asian elephants, leopards and birds.
The calf, along with its mother, is under forest department supervision
In late August, a herd of elephants were rescued after being swept away by a strong river current in the Uttar Pradesh, near the Nepal border.
The herd of five elephants – comprising three adults and two calves – were being swept towards a barrage in the Kaudiyala river when range officers from the Katarniaghat wildlife sanctuary came to their aid, Ramesh Pandey, of the Indian Forest Service, said.
The team closed a barrage gate to slow the current, allowing the adults to guide the calves to safety.
The herd exited the river and disappeared into the forest.
