This incident was reported from the Anuradhapura area in the dry zone. The elephant entered the village in search of food at night and fell in to an agricultural well. Next morning, villagers informed the incident to the wildlife department. The wildlife officers later attempt to rescued the elephant by using a JCB backhoe.
Such unsafe Wells are used for agriculture and are common in the area. There have been many instances in the past, where not only wild elephants but also many other animals have fallen into such unsafe Wells and been rescued by wildlife officials.
Such incidents are often reported during severe droughts. If such Wells used by farmers for agriculture are closed or made protected by a fence, the animals will not be exposed to such dangers. Earlier too, we saw several elephants being rescued by wildlife officials when they were fallen in to similar agricultural wells.
This poor elephant with all that screaming and yelling from the crowd must have been terrifying. Thankfully the elephant was rescued but done in quieter way.
Very annoying, to see the wild life ranges inefficiently dealing with a simple situation like this. I saw a short video that was filmed in Africa how two men and two women saved a baby elephant who was struggling to come out of a hole while his mother was confused of getting her young out. One man with the help off their jeep kept the mother elephant away from the hole and the other three kept digging a ramp for the young to come out
