A video of an elephant being pulled out of a ditch in Midnapore, West Bengal, has gone viral on social media. It depicts a group of forest rangers applying some physics to bring the young elephant from the hole.
Many people have tweeted the video, including IFS officer Parveen Kaswan, who claims that Archimedes’ principle was utilized.
“An elephant fell into a ditch in Midinapur. Now how to rescue it. By applying Archimedes’ principle. Watch to believe,” Kaswan says in the post.
The video is comprised of a sequence of pictures that show forest department staff using water to assist the animal float up and then assisting it with ropes to climb out of the pit.
The elephant is also seen struggling inside the deep pit and trying to use its trunk to come out.
The rescue was also posted on Twitter by Sandeep Berwal, an IFS and district forest officer (DFO), who stated that the department had been contacted about the incident at 1 a.m.
“The elephant was saved and escorted safely into the forest by 4 a.m; after a few lessons of swimming and knowledge about buoyancy,” he stated in a message.
He advised that rescue workers should be cautious with wild elephants, providing a video of the animal running into the woods after being saved.
Twitter users praised the efforts of the forest department officials. “My faith in humanity has been restored by such beautiful souls,” said a Twitter user Abhishek Singh.
What is Archimedes’ Principle?
It is a law of buoyancy discovered by a Greek mathematician and inventor, Archimedes. It states, “anybody completely or partially submerged in a fluid (gas or liquid) at rest is acted upon by an upward, or buoyant, force, the magnitude of which is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the body.”
An elephant fell into a ditch in Midinapur. Now how to rescue it. By applying Archimedes’ principle. Watch to believe. pic.twitter.com/1mPs3v8VjC
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) February 21, 2022