Rescuers in southern India worked for 15 hours on Friday (December 1) to free an elephant which fell into a deep well.

Footage showed a team in Muthappanpuzha in Kerala using a mechanical digger to open the side of the 36-foot-deep water source so that the adult male elephant could walk to safety unharmed.

Fifty-six people from various departments were involved in the operation.

An elephant that fell into a well in southern India's Kerala was rescued after a 15-hour-long rescue operation on January 1. The incident took place in the Muthappanpuzha region near the Anakkampoyil village in the Kozhikode district.

Visuals witnessing the incident feature the jumbo stationed in the middle of a puddle inside the deep, narrow well. The rescue personnel leave no stone unturned in saving the elephant and dig the well open with the help of an excavator. Meanwhile, the rest of the rescue personnel, along with a few locals, gather on the elevated surface to guide the rescue operation and behold the experience. After being rescued, the jumbo flaps its ears to shake the debris off before approaching the personnel that saved its life.

The 20-year-old tuskless male elephant fell into a 36-feet deep well on Friday morning and was successfully rescued around 9 pm. A rescue team of 56 members was involved in the 15-hour-long operation. The team dug the well open and devised a small pathway for the elephant to move out unharmed.

The rescue personnel included Divisional Forest Officer Flying Squad, P. Dhanesh Kumar, Divisional Forest Officer Kozhikode, M. Rajeevan, Range Forest Officer Thamarassery, Sudheer Nairoth, Range Forest Officer Flying Squad, Rubin, and Section Forest Officer, Prasanna Kumar. The team also included Kozhikode's Rapid Response Team and Wayanad's Elephant Squad Team.