A six-tonne elephant was rescued after it almost drowned in a popular tourist lake.
The giant animal was cooling off in the water in the shadows of Jaipur’s iconic Amer Fort in India when it started to struggle in a deep patch.
The elephant, named Anarkali, was only coaxed out of the lake when her owner jumped on her back.
Anarkali, who gives rides to tourists, was bathing at the lake shore before wandering further into the water.
Tourists could only look on as she began to struggle in a pocket of deep water.
Pictures of the rescue show the elephant’s owner, Arshad Ali, and her rider travelling to the stricken animal by boat.
However, she was too afraid to move and remained trapped out of her depth.
She only moved back to shore when Mr Ali leaped from the motor boat onto the elephant’s back.
With the help of fellow boaters, he was able to gently coax the confused elephant back to shore, where a crowd of onlookers had gathered.
Owner Arshad Ali said: ‘The elephants love cooling off in the water, but after an elephant entered the lake with a tourist on its back last year the administration banned elephants from doing so.
‘They love bathing in clean water, but are no longer allowed to. So when the mahout took Anarkali to bath in the shoreline the elephant wandered off into the lake like he used.
‘Thankfully Anarkali emerged unscathed after the efforts to save her. She is fit and healthy now.’
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