A video of an elephant rescued by forest officials by using an excavator earlier this week has been doing rounds on social media. The incident was reported from Siddapur village in Karnataka’s Kodagu district.
In the video, the elephant can be seen struggling to climb up a muddy ditch until an excavator present near the location gives the elephant a gentle push to climb up the ditch. Veteran actor Satish Shah took to Twitter to share the nearly two-minute clip and applauded the forest officials for rescuing the elephant.
Later, a firecracker was used to direct the elephant into the forest when others present cheered as the rescue operation got over.
While several social media users objected to the use of firecracker, Indian Forest Service official Sudha Ramen took to Twitter to explain its use.
“Why was that smoke cracker? To direct the animal into the forest, so that it doesn’t attack anyone due to stress,” Ramen tweeted.
