In 2015, people in a small village in India happened to witness a strange scene: an elephant tried hard digging a hole for 11 hours in a row, from sunrise to sunset. First she used her trunk as a shovel, and then her feet were included in the process too.

The elephant was a part of a large elephant herd spotted walking through northeastern India. But obviously, the girl was too busy with her own “work”, so the herb of about 60 elephants had no choice but to leave her behind.

The villagers were curious and, of course, confused. No one had any idea what was happening at that moment, and wild elephants could be dangerous so they had to keep a certain distance to observe more.

It’s not until hours later that they finally figured out the touching truth behind her action: her kid was there, stuck in a muddy well. They wanted to help, but they did not know how.

Unfortunately, the elephant gradually lost her strength, and her clumsy moves were making the situation a lot worse. The girl unintentionally pushed more and more mud into the well, so the more she dug, the deeper the calf was shoved back.

That’s when the villagers knew they had to act, fast.

According to Jitendra Tiwari, a villager who filmed the elephant’s struggle and took part in the rescue, they decided to do it creatively by chopping off a few banana trucks to distract the mama. And thankfully, their plan worked just in time.