This is an elephant mum and her baby. They have been here in this field for a considerably long time, without much movement. A snare has made a deep wound in the lower limb of the baby elephant’s right hand, causing him immobility. The herd has left the injured baby elephant but his mother did not move! The villagers who noticed this informed the wildlife office in the area and the officers arrived within minutes. While the mother and the baby were nibbling away what was left in the field, the officers prepared themselves to do the needful. They plan to sedate the baby elephant and move away his mother from him until treatment is over. So, the veterinarians quickly prepare the sedative drug and dart the baby elephant with it, using a tranquillizer gun.
The baby cannot be treated when his mother is just around, so she needs to be redirected to somewhere else until the baby elephant is treated. Usually, when you make loud noises, elephants move away but in this instance, it did not work. The wildlife team tried various methods to move away the mother elephant but they all failed, proving that a mother is the one who will still be there for her offspring even in the most crucial times.
Only one more method is left to keep the mother elephant under control. She needs to be sedated too. So the vets make a dose of the tranquilliser suitable for the mother and tranquillise her too.
First, the mother elephant gets sedated, partially. She still does not leave even a step aside from her baby. She is a tough one who does not want to give in. She determines to fight as long as she can but eventually, she gets fully sedated a little away from her baby while gazing at him helplessly and despondently.
During the dry season, food and water in the forest areas become scarce for wild animals. This makes the starving wild animals, especially the elephants, come into villages in the vicinity seeking food. Sometimes they end up getting caught in snares, trap guns and jaw bombs set mainly to catch smaller wild animals such as rabbits and wildbores.
Snare traps are very popular because they are so easy to make and cost only a few bucks. They are technically wire or cable nooses that are anchored somewhere. The animal runs or walks over the trap, the noose tightens around the body, neck or limb of the animal, and the animal is then unable to escape. Simple and effective it might be, but humane it is most definitely not. That is why snares are illegal.
After confirming both elephants were fully sedated, the wildlife teams approached the injured animal, put a rope around him, moved him a little away from his mother and put him on the ground carefully. This is done to keep the animal in control as there is a possibility for him to revive at any time. By no means, the wildlife team is trying to harm him or harass him.
What they do first, is cut off the snare on the baby elephant’s hand, using a piler. Thereafter, the vets carefully clean the injured area using hydrogen peroxide and wipe it off using cotton wool. Once it is cleaned well, they clean the wound again using saline. This process takes a few minutes as the wound is right around the limb.
You will notice, one officer is covering the baby elephant's eye. Can you guess why is it done? These wild babies are no different to human babies. If they see that someone is meddling with their wounds, they could panic and struggle. So, to avoid such trouble, the baby elephant’s eyes are kept closed. Isn’t that a clever trick?
Meanwhile, the vets prepared a mixture of povidone-iodine and negasunt powder and applied it gently on the wound, around the limb, using cotton. The wound must be causing a lot of discomfort to this little elephant. That may be why he is making an inarticulate sound, probably to convey pain. Anyway, the vets kept treating the wound and sprinkled more negasunt powder on it. The only objective of these officers is to provide this injured animal with the best possible treatment and heal him completely at the soonest. So, to speed up the healing process, they also injected antibiotics, multivitamins, and anti-parasite drugs like ivermectin, in doses suitable for the baby elephant.
This is the cable that caused all this trouble to this poor animal.
The baby elephant gets revived and stands up bellowing. It is a moment to be attentive because the mother elephant could also get perturbed about the noise her baby is making and attack - charge at this time, even though she is not revived yet. If she does, she can gore the people, and throw or crush them by stomping, until they die. After all, they are wild elephants.
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