Forest department officials in India's eastern Odisha state rescued an elephant after it fell into a pit on Saturday.

"This elephant got separated from its herd and when villagers saw it, they panicked and started shouting. As it was trying to run away from them, the elephant fell into the pit. The (forest) department has rescued it. They made a passageway for it with the help of an excavator," wildlife researcher Vanoomitra Acharya said.

The elephant trumpeted and ran towards the forest in the dark, as villagers cheered after it climbed out of the pit through the passage.

The number of wild Asiatic elephants, primarily found in India and parts of South and Southeast Asia, has fallen to under 50,000, just 15% of its historic average, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.