This is the ʜᴇᴀʀtʙʀᴇᴀᴋɪɴɢ moment a baby elephant refuses to leave its ᴅᴇᴀᴅ mum’s side and even tries to nudge her awake with its trunk.

Dɪstʀᴇssɪɴɢ footage shows the two-year-old desperately trying to wake his mum up while he keeps watch over her body for hours. The 40-year-old mum is believed to have ᴅɪᴇᴅ after ꜰᴀʟʟɪɴɢ from the hilltop and getting her neck stᴜᴄᴋ in a tree trunk. Two jumbo elephants had to be brought in to ʀᴇsᴄᴜᴇ the calf after forest officials discovered the grieving baby in the Rajaji Reserve Forest in Uttarakhand, India. Director of the reserve, Sanatan Sonkar described the ʜᴀʀʀᴏᴡɪɴɢ sᴄᴇɴᴇ, telling how ‘the baby calf simply refused to leave its mother’.

He explained: “It would feel the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ body of the fallen giant occasionally with its legs and trunk, hoping to elicit a response from her.” Footage shows the forest rangers pulling the baby elephant by its tail to bring it down the plains – but the mother refuses to budge. The two tamed elephants brought in to drag the youngster away from the scene – named ‘Rangeeli’ and ‘Radha’ – struck rangers as being overwhelmed by sadness at their task.  Rangers also pulled on the baby’s tail to persuade it to budge, before it was eventually pushed onto the back of a lorry. The bereaved calf has now been sent to an elephant camp, where officials say it is being well looked after.

The director of the camp said: “The calf has now been adopted by one of the jumbos who was present in the ʀᴇsᴄᴜᴇ operation, and the baby seems to be liking its new found mother.”