A heart-melter if ever there was one.
By Kristen Droesch — Written on Mar 25, 2014
Don't tell us animals can't love.
Something special happened in the Purulia district of West Bengal, India, where the struggle between elephants and humans has escalate over the last several years.
Elephants have been known to destroy fields of crops and demolish houses. However, that doesn't mean that these gentle giants don't have the capacity to feel, love and relate to other creatures. It is only when they are pushed do they push back.
Recently, one elephant proved our point, when it responded to the cries of a child in a house it had just partially destroyed. The elephant turned back at the sound of the baby girl crying and carefully removed all of the debris that had fallen around her during the wall collapse. This particular elephant is estimated to have destroyed 17 houses in the villages of Mathadi, Kasidih and Ghoshra, but responded to the cries of a child as any parent would. The sex of the elephant is unknown, but where it was a mother or a father is irrelevant. The astounding thing is that it heard another creature crying for help and reached out. The baby girl's mother, Lalita Mahato, said, '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.'
The child suffered some external injuries, and is being held under a 48 hour watch at a local hospital as a precaution.
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