This Adorable Video Of An Elephant Using Trunk To Help Calf Through Barrier Is Winning Hearts

Just two days after a wild elephant was rescued in Kerala after falling into a well, on July 3 a heart-warming video of an adult elephant helping the youngest one with the trunk over a barrier emerges and is winning hearts.

In the duration of about one-minute long clip, the elder elephant already on the other side of the barrier can be seen helping a baby elephant with its trunk crossing the divider. The adult elephant gently pushing the calf to help ascent the divider loft, almost the same height of the calf, was caught on camera by a group of local cyclists.

Despite struggling enough and attempting several times, the calf was left behind on the other side of the divider, while the bigger ones already made it through. It is then the adult elephant chose to give the calf a soft nudge.

38-year-old Anish Kata had shot and shared the delightful video on social media. And since then, netizens cannot seem to have been more enthralled. Anish along with three of his friends was cycling nearby Nadukani Churam in Kerala’s Malappuram district where these elephants were spotted on July 2, at 7.30 in the morning. The area is not far from the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border.

“It was a hugely touching scene. It was like seeing a mother taking care of a child. Not much traffic was there at that time because of the lockdown and this being near an inter-state border. A few other vehicles – including some commercial vehicles – waited for a while. This lasted for around half an hour,” Anish Kata told NDTV.

The video also shows a few trucks and other commercial vehicles pausing on their way not to cause anxiety to the elephant family.

“A video from Kerala (shared on WhatsApp) that shows why our infrastructure should be constructed with utmost thought and concern for wildlife. Appreciate the kindness of the truck drivers who waited till the elephants passed and didn’t add more to their anxiety”, former environment minister Jairam Ramesh took to Twitter appreciating the kind gesture and patience of the truck drivers.

On May 27, an incident of the killing of a pregnant elephant in Kerala’s Palakkad district sparked a row all over the country. The incident came to light followed by forest officer Mohan Krishnan’s Facebook post that highlighted how the elephant died after chomping off a cracker-filled pineapple.

In fact, time and again the country has witnessed the occurrences of wild animals being run over on the railway tracks and being killed in the hands of scared villagers. Whereas these incidents of animal cruelty are unacceptable, changing it requires mending the root causes of it.

The primary among them being the maintenance of adequate buffer zones between wild forests and residential areas.  Proper developmental and infrastructural planning is key to it! The more men step into the animal territory, the more the chances of fatalities on both sides.

The above video remains to be a cheerful reminder of their peaceful coexistence, given we as human beings are willing to be more resilient.