Baby elephant rescued from pit in Tinsukia

HT Correspondent
DIBRUGARH, Aug 21: A 13-month-old elephant was rescued from a pit near Digboi oil field in Tinsukia district on Saturday night.
According to sources, the baby elephant was jointly rescued by a team of forest department, members of NGOs and security personnel from IOCL.
Bijay Gogoi, an environmentalist, who was also part of the rescue operation said, “We don’t know when the baby elephant fell into the pit but we have suspected that it happened two to three days ago. The baby elephant belongs to Upper Dehing reserve forest east block.”
He further said, “The elephant corridor was affected after the construction of IOCL terminal in the Digboi oil field area. The elephants which roamed from one place to another are now facing problems with their movement.”
“The pit was built during British rule in India and many pits are found to be open still, the OIL has not done anything to fill up the pit. We urge OIL to fill up the pit which has been lying open,” Bijay Gogoi asserted.
Speaking to this correspondent, DFO, Digboi Forest Division Ranjit Ram said, “We have successfully rescued the baby elephant and have released him into the wild. We have talked to OIL and asked them to fill up the pit which is still open. I have also instructed our forest officials to search the open pit and take measures to fill it.”
“The movement of elephants is affected due to the construction of IOCL terminal at Golai elephant corridor. Due to the blockage of the corridor, the elephants are facing movement problems from Upper Dehing reserve forest east block to west block,” the DFO said.
Meanwhile, the Digboi Forest Division has conducted numerous awareness related programmes to curb man-elephant conflict.
“Due to the blockage of the Golai elephant corridor, the elephant movement was affected and they came towards Digboi Muliabarry human settlement area resulting in man-elephant conflict,” said a resident.