Forest beat officer T Ansari said the male calf fell into the well when a herd of elephants from Dalma in Jharkhand entered a forest between Durgu and Putudi villages in West Bengal Purulia district yesterday.
The mother elephant entered the well to save the calf but got stuck in it. On hearing their cries the villagers informed the forest department.
A rescue mission was launched by the joint forces deployed in the area, the police and forest workers, who dug out the adjacent spot and enlarged the well. The mother elephant was saved but the calf died, he said.
The calf was buried near the site and the mother elephant unwilling to give up wailed through the night and damaged standing crops as it paced between the fields and the well.
The villagers afraid of attacks by it, locked their houses and fled to their relatives' residences today morning, he said.
"We are trying to push back the elephant and the herd to Dalma," Ansari said.