You can't take our baby! Elephants force rangers to flee when they try to remove a dead calf they were still grieving for

  • The incident happened in the Nilgiris Forest Reserve in South India 
  • The rangers were charged at by the mother of the young mammal  
  • They were forced to abandon their plans as more elephants joined the mother in guarding the carcass of the deceased baby elephant

By LAURA SEAR FOR MAILONLINE

Published: | Updated:

Dramatic footage shows a group of forest rangers trying to retrieve the body of a baby elephant when suddenly they had to run for their lives when grieving elephants started charging at them.

The incident happened near the Nilgiris Reserve in South India. The team of forest rangers accompanied by a veterinarian had gone to retrieve the carcass of the mammal and take it away for post-mortem.

As soon as they inched closer to the carcass the mother of the calf, who had been guarding the carcass of her baby, emerged from the bushes and menacingly charged at them.

The large group of forest rangers were able to keep the grieving mum away for some time

The large group of forest rangers were able to keep the grieving mum away for some time

But the grieving mammal  kept returning to protect her deceased calf

But the grieving mammal  kept returning to protect her deceased calf

The team kept chasing the mother elephant away, but it kept coming back more furious than the previous time.

'The calf could be around one-and-a-half years old and might have died on Wednesday morning. It was found on land belonging to Nelson Estates near the reserve forest area in Bokkapuram,' said forest range officer Kanthan.

'We could not ascertain the sex of the calf as two female elephants and a tusker were guarding the carcass since morning,' he said. 

'When we tried to go near the carcass, the elephants chased us for about 500 metres,' he added.

The team could have handled one charging elephant, but they were caught off guard when other elephants popped out of the bushes and charged at them, making them run for their life. 

The mother is then joined by two other charging elephants 

The mother is then joined by two other charging elephants 

Causing the rangers to abort their plans and flee the scene

Causing the rangers to abort their plans and flee the scene

The rangers had to abort the plan as two elephants stood guarding the calf's carcass.  

Even as the mother had left the spot in the evening, two other elephants remained near the corpse in an agitated state, Kanthan said.

'We have postponed the postmortem for Thursday. The elephants might leave the spot once smell starts emanating from the carcass,' he said.

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