This is the dramatic moment a stranded cow was rescued from a concrete drainage ditch in India.

Footage shows the bovine stuck in the waterway before volunteers tied a rope around its body in Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh, on Sunday, April 6.

Rescuers then grouped together to safely pull the fallen cow near a college hostel.

The Atal Kamdhenu Gau Sewa Sansthan team, led by the NGO's chairman, Gaurav Mishra, helped recover the stray animal.

India has hundreds of thousands of cows roaming its streets.

It is party due to devout locals who follow Hindu customs, with cows regarded as sacred animals that cannot be eaten or slaughtered once they have stopped producing milk. The majority of states ban the sale or slaughter of cows.

Instead of dealing with the economic burden of keeping their spent cattle, many farmers let the beasts roam the streets - leading to chaos when the animals become agitated and turn their fury on humans.