Bull gets stuck atop 60-foot water tank — but how did it get there?

Villagers looked up — and saw something they probably never expected to find on top of their water tank.

A bull.

The animal had somehow made its way onto a water tank about 60 feet above the ground in a village in central India. Getting up there was easy. Getting back down proved considerably harder.

The bull remained stranded for nearly two days before authorities eventually sedated it and used a crane to bring it safely back to the ground.

Video of the extraordinary rescue in Daduni village, in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district, has since spread online.

But even after the bull was safely rescued, one question remained unanswered: How did it get up there in the first place?

Bull spotted 60 feet above ground

The drama began on Sunday evening when the bull climbed onto the village water tank, according to Indian media reports.

The structure is reportedly about 60 feet high.

Once villagers noticed the animal at the top, people gathered below as they tried to coax it down.

Daduni panchayat secretary Mahesh Gaur said the bull was kept under observation and police and local authorities were informed.

At one point, the animal reportedly appeared to attempt the journey back down.

Then it saw the crowd.

Instead of continuing, the bull turned around and went back up.

As the hours passed, the village administration arranged food and water for the stranded animal while officials tried to determine how to rescue it without causing an injury.

Several attempts to bring it down failed.

A crane was called in

By Tuesday, authorities decided they needed heavier equipment.

A crane was brought from Sheopur, and police joined officials from the animal husbandry department for the rescue.

Veterinary officer Sachin Upadhyay administered medication to sedate the bull before rescuers secured the animal so it could be lowered from the structure.

Video shows the bull suspended from the crane as it is carefully brought down from the tank.

Manpur police station in-charge Satish Dubey said police worked alongside the animal husbandry department during the operation.

The final rescue took around two hours, according to Aaj Tak and the Free Press Journal.

The bull was safely returned to the ground, with no reports of serious injury.

Was it really up there for 42 hours?

Several Indian reports, including Aaj Tak and the Free Press Journal, put the time the animal spent stranded at around 42 hours.

Some footage circulating online, however, described the tank as 50 feet high and said the animal had been stranded for approximately 36 hours.

NDTV also reported the tank as approximately 60 feet high but gave a shorter estimate for how long the bull remained there.

What the reports agree on is the remarkable part: the bull had reached the top of a high village water tank and could not safely get back down, forcing authorities to use a crane.

How exactly the animal managed to climb so high remains unclear.

And perhaps that's why footage of the rescue has attracted so much attention.

After nearly two days worrying about how to get the bull down, villagers were left wondering how it managed to get up there at all.