Kaziranga National Park, Assam, July 02, 2016: A four- to six-month-old male Asian elephant calf that had been separated from its mother and natal herd was reunited with them by the North Bank unit of IFAW-WTI’s Mobile Veterinary Service (MVS) on June 28.

MVS veterinarian Dr Jahan Ahmed received a rescue call at 9.00am on June 27 and proceeded to a small tea garden near village Gomeri, Biswanath Charali district, with animal keepers Doluk Dabang and Birkhe Bahadur, and local Emergency Relief Network volunteer Amit Bhattarai.

The calf was found to be in good physical shape with no external injuries. Inputs from villagers revealed that it had strayed into the fenced-in tea garden the previous night and been separated from its mother as the herd moved past Gomeri village. The mother had apparently returned to the area twice, but the presence of humans had deterred it from searching for the calf.

The MVS team, along with ACF P Verma and frontline staff from the Gomeri forest camp and Borgang range, Kaziranga NP, located the natal herd about two to three kilometres from the tea garden. A decision was made not to disturb the calf by attempting to take it to the herd, rather to wait till nightfall when locals said the herd would likely move closer to the village.

The calf stayed at the tea garden with minimal human contact through the day. It was kept hydrated with coconut water. At around 9.00pm the MVS team was informed that some villagers had heard elephants trumpeting near the Brahmaputra River about a kilometre away. Having confirmed the herd’s presence the team, along with forest department personnel, led the calf towards the riverbank.

It had started to drizzle. The calf was reacting violently to the light of torches and even cell phones, charging its escorts several times. The team therefore walked on in pitch darkness, a few people in front of the calf and a few behind, guiding it towards the area where the other elephants had been heard.

As they neared the river an elephant trumpeted; the calf responded by trumpeting in turn and moving briskly towards the sound. The team returned to the village and at 1.00am on June 28, came back to the spot where they had last seen the calf. There was no sign of it and the sounds of elephants could be heard in the distance. At 6.00am the team again went to the same spot but the calf was still nowhere to be seen; villagers said that they had seen the mother and calf together near the village’s periphery at 3.30am.

The calf was deemed to have been successfully reunited with its herd. The MVS team left the scene for another rescue shortly afterwards, asking forest staff and villagers to keep an eye out for the calf. No information was received on June 28 and 29; on June 30 local forest officers reported that the herd had been seen near the village. Amidst the adults, they said there were a few calves of the same age group as the once lost calf.