Elephant Destroys Home But Saves 10-Month-Old Baby

As human settlement expands and the need for more agricultural land increases, wild animals are being pushed out of their normal ranges and onto smaller pieces of land, impacting not only their living space, but also their food sources.

As a result, human-wildlife conflicts are on the rise, especially in countries like Cote d’Ivoire and India.

In India, elephant rampages are increasingly common, whereby a herd or individual elephant destroys homes and/or crops. These interactions can even become deadly.

One elephant, who lives in West Bengal’s Purulia district, has killed three people within the last year, forest officers told The Times of India.

It is this same elephant that recently smashed through a local home in search of food.

Just as the local family was having dinner at 8 p.m., they heard a “cracking sound” and a “huge crash from the bedroom,” The Times of India reports.

“We ran over and were shocked to see the wall in pieces and a tusker standing over our baby. She was crying and there were huge chunks of the wall lying all around and on the cot,” said father Dipak Mahato.

Amazingly, as soon as Mahato’s 10-month-old baby began crying, the elephant turned around and came back to the home, removing every piece of debris on and around the infant.

“We worship Lord Ganesh (the elephant god) in our village. Still, I can’t believe that the tusker saved my daughter after breaking down the door and smashing a wall. We watched amazed as it gently removed the debris that had fallen on her. It’s a miracle,” said the infant’s mother, Lalita Mahato.

The baby girl was rushed to the Deben Mahato Sedar Hospital and was treated for some external injuries. The Times of India reports that she will be kept “under observation for 48 hours,” but that she is “not in danger.”

As we continue to learn more about the emotional lives of elephants, it seems that they are more like us than we ever imagined. Like us, they are capable of making mistakes – even one so severe as destroying a home – but then, in just an instant, are able to show compassion and kindness to another in need. Perhaps there is something we can learn from them. Perhaps there is still hope for humanity.

Image source: kun0me / Flickr