Mysuru (PTI): "Anguished" by the plight of an injured baby elephant in the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve near here, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday urged Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to help the animal, saying it is in need of urgent medical care.

Rahul and Sonia Gandhi had on Tuesday visited the reserve where he saw the baby elephant.

In his letter to Bommai, Gandhi said he and the Congress president briefly visited Nagarhole Tiger Reserve where they happened to come across the painful sight of the injured baby elephant, with its mother.

The little calf has a severely injured tail and trunk, and is fighting for its life, he said.

"I understand and appreciate that there is a view that nature must be allowed to take its own course. However, in the case of endangered and iconic species, exceptions are often made depending on the severity of the situation. The aforementioned calf is undoubtedly in need of urgent medical care," he said in his letter.

"Therefore, I wanted to cross political boundaries and appeal to your sense of compassion to intervene and save the little elephant.

"I am confident that it will survive if given proper treatment. I hope you will extend timely assistance to save the iconic little elephant," Gandhi told the chief minister.

The former Congress chief earlier tweeted a picture of the baby elephant with the mother.

"A mother's love. I felt so sad to see this beautiful elephant with her injured little baby fighting for its life," he said on Twitter.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also tweeted Gandhi's letter to Bommai.

"On the day of rest for Bharat Jodo Yatra Rahul Gandhi visited the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve and was anguished by what he saw. Here is his letter of concern on India's national heritage animal, just sent to CM of Karnataka," Ramesh said.

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Mumbai (PTI): The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to consultant Chetan Patil arrested in connection with the collapse of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj''s statue at Rajkot fort in Malvan in August.

A 35-foot statue of the iconic Maratha warrior king collapsed in Sindhudurg district on August 26, nearly nine months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled it on Navy Day.

Patil was arrested on August 30 from Kolhapur.

A single bench of Justice A S Kilor on Thursday held that no case was made out to implicate Patil in the case as he had not been appointed as the structural designer of the statue.

The bench further said Patil had only submitted a structural stability report of the pedestal of the statue and the pedestal was intact even after the collapse.

Another accused, Jaydeep Apte, who was the sculptor and contractor, was also arrested in the case. The HC said it would hear his bail plea on November 25.

The Sindhudurg police had registered an FIR under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for negligence and other offences last month against Apte and Patil for the statue's collapse.

Patil and Apte moved HC seeking bail after a sessions court rejected their pleas.