Forest officers at Coimbatore witnessed what is the most crushing display of affection between a mother and her baby, when they found a two-year-old elephant calf trying hard to revive his dead mother for hours, snuggling up to her limp body and chasing away anybody who came near it.
In a video released by ANI, the resolute baby elephant can be seen caressing his mother with his snout as if to ease her pain, clinging to her in a searing reflection of sadness.
The elephant's grief, his tragic attempts to bring his mother back to life wash us over with a tenderness rarely found among humans today.