New Delhi: When an elephant calf fell into a well a few days ago, forest officials and villagers put their wits together and came up with a not so very novel, and yet a very novel solution to rescue the juvenile animal.
The incident, according to a report by India Today, occurred in the Gumla district of Jharkhand and photos of the same have now gone viral.
The photos of the daring rescue were posted to Twitter by Indian Forest Service officer Ramesh Pandey. The rescuers can be seen pouring water into the well… not to drown the poor animal, but to rescue it.
How, you ask?
During the hours-long operation, forest officials and villagers used Archimedes’ principle to get the stranded animal out of the well. They pumped water into the well so that the calf could float up and back to safety.
“Heartwarming pictures of how intelligently the team @dfogumla and villagers using Archimedes’s physical law of buoyancy save an elephant calf who had fell in a well. They pumped water into well to float the elephant to surface. Great work. @Forest_Dept_GOJ, [sic]” tweeted Pandey.
Heartwarming pictures of how intelligently the team @dfogumla and villagers using Archimedes’s physical law of buoyancy save an elephant calf who had fell in a well. They pumped water into well to float the elephant to surface. Great work. @Forest_Dept_GOJ pic.twitter.com/DP8ydrctsp
— Ramesh Pandey IFS (@rameshpandeyifs) January 30, 2020
A video of the rescue effort was also posted by another user @nawalkishor2323.
#sbo_gumla pic.twitter.com/WsQd7vMnfK
— nawal kishor (@nawalkishor2323) January 30, 2020
Twitter users soon began pouring in words of appreciation and lauding the efforts undertaken to rescue the helpless being.
One user wrote, “Amazing! Science at its best. Great example to show to kids during Physics lesson! They will get to learn both science & love to animals. [sic]”
“Indians are very sharp mind & very good job done by forest department & local people, [sic]” wrote another.
Another heaped praise on the team calling them the “real heroes of this nation”.
