Rescued elephant calf dies

BANGALORE: A young male elephant calf which was rescued from Hanur forest range of Chamarajanagar district last week, and  brought to Bannerghatta Biological Park, succumbed on early hours of Friday. “Every effort was made to rescue it but the calf couldn’t be saved”, Dr R Raju, Deputy Conservator of Forests, BBP told Express.He further said,”the calf, who was abandoned by its mother, joined a herd of cattle and came to the house of a farmer on October 20. The farmer noticed it in the morning and alerted the forest officials. On the receipt of information, a team of officers from the Hanur Forest Range went to the village and took possession of the abandoned calf. In the meantime, they  tried to feed the calf milk and food because of which it developed diahorea. “Upon my request to Chief Conservator of Forests of Project Elephant, Ajai Mishra, the calf was brought to the BBP on October 26 and housed in the Intensive Care Unit of BBP. By that time, the health condition of the calf had deteriorated and it died in the early hours of Friday”, he added.Dr Raju opined that the calf would have survived if it was brought to the BBP within one or two days of taking it into possession.