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Journalism of Courage
When a young elephant fell into a deep ditch in West Bengal, forest officials applied some physics to bring it out. Applying Archimedes’ Principle, the rescuers filled the pit with water, helping the animal to rise up and eventually come out safely.
In a video doing rounds on the internet, the young animal can be seen struggling inside a deep furrow, trying to come out of it using its trunk. However, its weight kept hindering the process. The video also shows the forest department officials using water to help the animal float up and then assisting it with several ropes to come out of the ditch.
According to District Forest Officer (DFO) Sandeep Berwal, the officials of the forest department in Medinipur district were alerted after midnight, when they rushed to the site to ensure the animal was out.
“Few lessons of swimming and learning about buoyancy,” Berwal wrote online explaining how the elephant was helped. The officer said the animal was safely removed from the hole at around 4 am.
For the uninitiated, according to Archimedes’ Principle, “a body at rest in a fluid is acted upon by a force pushing upward called the buoyant force, which is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces.”
As the clip went viral, netizens were not only happy that the young pachyderm received timely help, they were also impressed by the technique. Highlighting that it was perhaps the safest option to bring out the animal in distress without using an extreme measure, one remarked it a beautiful example to show how a theory is of practical use.
While some also discussed how dangerous such deep furrows are for wild animals and humans, many suggested if these can be covered or filled to avoid such untoward situations in the future.
