Five fishermen spotted a drowning baby elephant. Then they tracked down its mother.
Five fishermen in West Bengal pulled a four-day-old elephant calf from the raging Teesta River on September 21, and forest officials then reunited it with its mother on the riverbed.
A four-day-old elephant calf was swept away from its herd while crossing the Teesta River near the Gajoldoba Teesta Barrage in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district on the morning of Monday, September 21, 2026. According to The Hindu, the barrage's sluice gate operator, Tapan Das, saw the calf floating downstream and raised the gate further so it would not be dashed against the structure.
He then phoned Bablu Das, a fisherman working the river. Bablu Das and four friends, Ajay, Mithu, Biswanath and Gopal, rowed their dinghy some 5 km, steering with bamboo staves. They found the calf with its trunk raised above the water to breathe. A video shot by one of the boatmen shows the group chasing it. Within about a minute, two people on the boat pulled the calf aboard. It was still breathing.
Bablu Das said the calf looked nervous and its body was very cold. The men tried to calm it and steered to the riverbank. Forest officials from the Baikunthapur Forest Division had meanwhile driven along the bank with a veterinarian. The team took the calf to a spot upstream of the barrage, where it had been separated from the herd, and found the elephants waiting.
Samiran Raj, the Belacoba Range Officer, said the team could not tell which elephant was the mother. The plan was to leave the calf on a dry stretch of riverbed and wait for it to call. Hundreds of people had gathered to film reels, however, and the noise kept the herd hidden in tall grass. The calf stayed close to its rescuers at first, then began calling from a distance. The mother answered, walked out and wrapped it in her trunk.
Mudit Kumar, the divisional forest officer, called the two-hour operation a "beautiful story of rescue and reunion." The Forest Department praised the fishermen's courage, local knowledge and boating skills. Bablu Das, who is secretary of the Uttarbanga Matsyajibi Forum, said the group had rescued elephant calves and deer before, working with forest officials. He also described their limits: "We operate a small dinghy and don’t have life jackets." He asked the government for help.
Note: The headline says the fishermen tracked down the mother. Per the page, the fishermen rescued the calf from the river, and forest officials took it upstream, where the herd was already waiting, and reunited it with its mother.
At a Glance
- The calf was four days old when currents swept it away from its herd near the Gajoldoba Teesta Barrage on September 21, 2026.
- Five fishermen rowed about 5 km in a dinghy to reach the calf.
- The forest team's operation to rescue and reunite the calf lasted about two hours.
- Gate operator Tapan Das raised the barrage gate to keep the calf from hitting the structure.
Sources
This brief was written by Brightside Report from the reporting linked above. Spot an error? Request a correction.