Elephants are highly intelligent and sensitive. When water supply suddenly stopped in the Cinchona division of Tan Tea in Valparai, Tamil Nadu, people went to investigate and found a calf standing by the water tank. Its mother was inside the tank, unable to scale the height of the wall and get out. Both, the calf and the people – upon seeing each other – ran in opposite directions out of fear.
This particular female elephant belonged to a herd that has been monitored since 2002 by researchers of the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF). On being notified, the Tamil Nadu forest department decided to break the walls of the tank so she could step on the debris and climb out. It was amazing that she seemed to know and understand that the people were trying to help her, and stood at the other corner of the tank to enable them to make way for her to climb out.
A GoPro was set up by Varun M Nayar of NCF to document how the elephant made her way out.
