5 fishermen rescue an elephant calf swept 2.5 miles down a river. Then they set out to find mum

On Monday, September 21, 2026, five fishermen were tooling around in the Teesta River in West Bengal, India, when their eyes caught the blurry sight of an elephant calf’s three-quarter body submerged in the river while it wrestled with the currents. The fishermen rescued the ailing baby elephant and, within two hours, reunited it with its mother upstream. On September 24, 2026, CNN (@cnn) shared a TikTok video capturing both the rescue and the reunion. The video has since amassed 151,000 views.

Baby struggling in treacherous currents

The moment the fishermen saw the calf grappling with the river currents, they alerted the officials of the Indian Forest Service (IFS) but continued to help it return to safety. Eventually, they pulled it out of the water and hauled it into their boat. Three men then swam alongside the boat with the calf on board, per the Indian news outlet The Times of India. One of the officers, named Mudit Kumar Verma (@muditkverma), shared on X that the baby elephant was swept nearly three miles downstream due to the frigid currents in the river.

Adorable reunion

Once the calf was brought to safety, the forest department searched for the calf’s mother and found her several miles upstream. After reuniting with its mother, the calf trumpeted loudly while the mother embraced it. “Our Forest team, with the help of local fishermen, rescued the drowning calf and reunited it with its mother. A beautiful story of rescue and reunion,” Verma wrote.

An onlooker, named Rajkumar Roy, added, “The current was very strong, and the calf was helpless,“ per Newsflare via People. “The fishermen took two dinghies and followed it for nearly 4 km (2.5 miles)." Investigation revealed that the baby elephant was just three to four days old.

The significance of elephants in India

The episode is significant given that India is home to nearly 60% of the world’s wild Asian elephants, and every elephant counts, per PIB. Besides, according to the Wildlife Institute of India's new All-India Elephant Estimation report, cited by Standard HK, officials conducted a genetic analysis of more than 21,000 dung samples as well as laid out a vast network of camera traps and recorded 414,400 mile-wide foot surveys. Their analysis revealed that there are an estimated 22,446 wild elephants in India, and this species is classified as endangered.

Psychology professor Joshua Plotnik once shared with The Guardian that although abandonment is rare, elephant mothers can sometimes reject a calf if it meets her after a very long time or if the mother is under stress or when circumstances jeopardize the safety of the herd. In this case, thankfully, the mother fondly accepted her calf and even embraced it to the fullest.

Meanwhile, viewers were left swooning over the adorable episode. They urged the officials to keep protecting this vulnerable species. @ceebus commented, “We must do everything to protect wild elephants. Some of the last magnificent wild creatures we have left.” @mackbrooklyn added, “Beautiful act of compassion. It’s heartwarming to see people step up to save a helpless elephant calf and help reunite it with its mother.” @marisalg99 said, “Aww! It even looked like she was looking around afterwards to see who she should thank!”

You can follow CNN (@cnn) on TikTok for the latest news and updates. 

More on Scoop Upworthy

Parakeet gets ‘arrested’ for shoplifting, and we can’t stop laughing at the police report

Photographer captures the heartbreaking final moments of pets with their owners

Polyglot spent weeks learning how bonobos communicate. Their reaction caught even the experts off guard