This is the heartwarming moment a mother elephant raised her trunk to thank forest rangers for rescuing her calf.

The female jumbo was roaming her habitat when the juvenile slipped down a stream with strong currents in Tamil Nadu, India, on February 24.

She climbed down the banks to help her offspring, but to no avail, so officers jumped in to help.

Footage shows the mother and child finally reunited after the wildlife officers helped push the young jumbo to higher ground, with the adult elephant waving her trunk like she was saying thank you to the workers.

Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Supriya Sahu said: 'Our hearts are melting with joy to see the elephant mother raising her trunk to thank our foresters after they rescued and united a very young baby elephant with the mother.

'The baby had slipped and fallen into a canal in Pollachi in Coimbatore District in Tamil Nadu.

'The mother tried hard to rescue the baby, but the young one was unable to come out due to strong water flow.

'Kudos to the team for their exceptional efforts, which led to the successful reunion even though the operation was fraught with risks.

'Fabulous work by FD Ramasubraniam, DDB Teja, Pugalenthi FRO, Thilakar Forester, Saravanan Forest guard, Vellingiri Forest guard, MuraliForest watcher, Rasu Forest watcher, Balu APW, Nagaraj APW, Mahesh APW, and Chinnathan forest guard.'

The sub-continent has at least 30,000 wild elephants - more than any other country and approximately 60 per cent of the world's entire Asian elephant population.