DIBRUGARH: A 13-month old elephant was rescued from a pit near the Digboi oil field at Tinsukia district in Assam.
The baby elephant was jointly rescued by a team of Assam forest department, member of NGOs and security personnel from Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL).
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Bijay Gogoi, an environmentalist, who was also the part of the rescue operation said, “We don’t know when the baby elephant fell into the pit, but we suspected it to be at least two to three days ago.”
“The baby elephant came from the upper Dehing reserve forest,” Gogoi said.
He said, “The elephant corridor was affected after the construction of IOCL terminal at Digboi oil field area. The elephants that earlier roamed freely from one place to another, are now facing problem in their movement.”
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“The pit was built during the British Raj in India and many such pit are still found open. The OIL has not done anything to fill the pit. The baby elephant fell in the pit which came with a herd. We urged the OIL to fill up the pit that are still lying open,” Bijay Gogoi asserted.
Speaking to this correspondent, DFO, Digboi forest division – Ranjit Ram said, “We have successfully rescued the baby elephant and released him into the wild. We have talked to OIL and asked them to fill up the pits, which are still open. I have also instructed our forest officials to search open pits and take measures to fill it.”
“The movement of elephants are affected due to the construction of IOCL terminal at Golai elephant corridor. The elephants are facing movement problem from upper Dehing reserve forest’s east block to west block,” the DFO said.