Forestry and thromde officials in Gelephu rescued an elephant calf that got trapped in a duct, around 8:30 am yesterday.

The calf, which was born on September 13 got trapped in the duct, as a herd of seven elephants loitered around an area a kilometre away from the main Gelephu town. The duct is under construction to lay overhead power cables underground.

Sources in Gelephu said the mother of the calf and another elephant refused to go away as the calf remained trapped.

A thromde official said the contractor of Tobdhan Construction provided them an excavator with which they dismantled the duct, pulled out the calf and pushed it along the road. “The calf joined the mother.”

He said the mother elephant charged the excavator when they were dismantling the duct, but ran away from the area in a while.

The official said the calf was trapped around 4am. “The elephants keep loitering around the thromde area every night.”

Staff reporter

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