Ooty: At Houndale range in Gudalur limits at the Nilgiris border near here, it is a touching story of an abandoned two-months-old jumbo calf trying to search for its mother and herd.
The foresters are taking efforts to unite the calf with its mother/herd in the jungles. It was a rather pathetic episode for the male jumbo calf. In fact, the infant jumbo, was found battling for life inside a trench along the forest fringes in a remote area at Houndale on Monday morning.
The foresters who rushed to the spot made efforts to rescue the calf from the trench.
It is said that this calf could have accidentally fallen inside the trench while roaming around either with its mother or with its herd. The mother/herd may have abandoned it and vanished inside the woods after the attempt to rescue the calf went in vain on Sunday night.
Forest sources said that since the rescued calf is estimated to be around 2 months, it is an absolute need to feed milk from its mother for its survival. While it is understandably looking forward to join with its mother, the forest team on rescue duty took the calf inside the jungles in search of its herd to unite the calf with its herd/mother.
As the efforts they took on Monday failed to yield dividends, the foresters erected a temporary kraal inside the woods to house the calf and to wait to see whether its mother/herd returned to the spot to take the calf.
