The Milgis Trust

Category: Milgis lugga, elephants | Date: Oct 06 2008 | By: milgistrust

The story below is just one reason for the absolute relief of the rains coming…On the 30th of September, herders came to the Milgis lugga in preparation to water their cows, but were distressed to find that a 10 year old elephant had fallen into one of their water holes. The water hole was quite narrow and pretty deep.. aprox 10/12 feet. They immediately alerted other herders and they confined on what to do. They all agreed that the best thing is to look for our Milgis scouts in the area to call for help as this was a big elephant which they could not remove from the hole on their own. 2 youths were sent to look for the scouts. One went to kurkum to look for Lesanchu and the other went to Ilakweny to look for Lesampouwa. Lesanchu had gone to the milgis base, having rescued a baby desert warthog that he had found stuck in the mud, ..sadly the little pig died of pneumonia that night… Lesampouwa had gone to the kigwar area on patrol., unfortunately quite a long way… When they finally found him, he immediately alerted the base on his radio.. When he got to the scene he was very distressed, the Elephant was very close to drowning in the mud.. He asked several times for the car to come quick…Every one was nervous..Night fall was catching up…

Seven scouts and the manager immediately gathered spades, ropes and any implements that may help, and left in a big hurry in the Wild Frontiers pickup, down a long slow track and by about 7.30 pm they were there. They found 9 community members and our scout Lesampouwa still waiting for us, their hopes were lifted beyond expectation!! Night had fallen and they had given up hope..Amazingly a bull elephant had visited the site and had tried to kick the sides of the well in…… . The situation on the ground was pitiful… The Elephant was so scared, and was making alot of noise, which of course scared every one… The rescue team called us on the radio at base to say it was impossible… I told them that ‘nothing is impossible for the Milgis scouts when something is in trouble’!! Which fairly gave them the push they needed!! They assessed the situation …The first thing they decided to do was try and get sand in the sides so that the Elephant had more to stand on which seemed to work abit as he was able to bring his mouth up. Then they started digging a trench that the elephant could hopefully use to climb up and out of he hole. The elephant was so wild that at one point it was throwing mud at the guys opening the hole. Having dug the trench right to the hole, they thought that the eley will be able to come out on his own. They all stood back and after 10 minutes of silence he tried to come out but his hind limbs seemed to be trapped, at one point they thought one of the hind limbs was broken. They continued digging until 11pm… they were tired and hungry, of course in the rush had not thought of taking any food with them! They moved away abit out of the lugga and slept, hoping he would make the effort to get out on his own…

Scout digging the sides of the well out, to get Elephant out..

Desperate situation… This Elephant was stuck in the well 36 hours

6.00 am next morning they are there sadly to find the poor elephant still there.. still alive… He was more distressed and wild than the previous night.They felt awful… Once again they were on the radio… ‘Hes still there and he is so distressed… We don’t know what to do??’… My answer was… ‘The only time the Milgis scout will leave an elephant in a well is if it is dead… Do what ever you can to get him out!!.’. Silence again on the radio as they get back to work.. They had opened all that was possible to open the night before so now it was time to try plan B!! To get a rope around his neck and pull him out with the vehicle.. They made a loop and tried to get it round the ears and below the mouth, but the elephant did not make it easy!, he kept on grabbing the rope with his trunk and throwing it away, or chewing it, but finally it was in place and they tied it to the Landcruiser. 2 people with knives were ready at the back of the vehicle so that the moment he was out of the hole they would cut the rope. Three times the rope broke and the elephant slumped back into the mud, but it looked as if the plan could work! They rolled two ropes together and and made the same loop and this time somehow the eley cooperated and it was easy putting the rope round his ears. This time… out he came, and they dragged him a few feet from the hole, the rope cutters were told to cut the rope and the vehicle moved away. The Elephant lay still for 2 minutes which was very worrying, they thought they had strangled him..There was a deathly silence but suddenly he started moving, stretching his legs a few times before getting up on his feet. Every one scattered in different directions thinking it would go wild but instead it just looked around .. may be saying “thank you guys” and sped off to the bush. Everybody was too relieved, and started cheering and clapping..Which was not quite the way they should have behaved with this distressed Elephant, but no one could control their joy!! .Happy days to the Elephant!!

They finally managed to drag him out with the vehicle, but had they strangled it!!… NO.. after two minutes he got up!! And it played into the rescuers hands as they had time to cut the rope!