Watch: Elephant herd hold ‘funeral procession’ for dead calf

New Delhi, June 11: Elephants are among the most intelligent of the creatures with complex consciousnesses that are capable of strong emotions.

A heartbreaking footage has gone viral on social media that shows a herd of elephants mourning the death of a calf in a 'funeral procession'.

The video posted to Twitter by Indian Forest Service officer Parveen Kaswan has garnered more than 14,000 likes, 6,700 retweets and hundreds of emotional messages in just three days.

"This will move you !! Funeral procession of the weeping elephants carrying the dead body of the child elephant. The family just don't want to leave the baby," Keswani wrote on Twitter.

In the viral video, an elephant can be seeon carrying the body of a dead calf. It drops the carcass to the ground before proceeding to stand at a respectable distance. Moments later, the herd walk in a line and assemble around the dead body.

Then, after spending what seems like a minute in silent prayer, the first elephant picks up the carcass again and leads the herd back into the forest.

In a separate tweet, Parveen Kaswan touched upon theories of "ancient elephant cemeteries" in the forest. "Many people have written about it. But I have not found any conclusive evidence. Though in most cases, elephants prefer to die near water bodies," he said.