Locals in a village in eastern India were today (November 11) faced with a big problem: how to move the body of a dead elephant.

Footage captured in the Jhargram district of West Bengal showed locals standing over the corpse of the wild pachyderm contemplating the task at hand.

A team coordinated by forest department officials then placed ropes around the creature and used a digger to lift it onto the back of a truck.

It was taken away for a post-mortem, according to local reports.

A dead jumbo's body was lifted using an excavator in eastern India's West Bengal on November 11. The incident took place in Nayagram, located in the Jhargram district.

Visuals feature an excavator arriving at the spot, where an elephant lies lifelessly in a clearing amid the woods. The locals stand surrounding the pachyderm while the JCB's machine arm slowly lifts the deceased jumbo. Later, it puts the mammal into the back of a vehicle, which carries it away.

The forest officials arrived at the spot upon being alerted and swung into action. They used an excavator to carry the jumbo for post-mortem to get to the bottom of its sudden death.