Two elephant rescues in Assam spotlight human-induced hazards

Wildlife teams in Assam carried out two elephant rescues within two days, drawing attention to the human-made hazards the animals face in the state's tea-growing belt.

On Thursday morning, a sub-adult elephant was spotted struggling with a truck tyre lodged around its neck at the Bukhial Tea Estate in eastern Assam's Golaghat district. The animal was moving with a herd when it was noticed.

Officials from the Golaghat Forest Division and a team from the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) near Kaziranga reached the site to assess the situation and track the herd's movement.

"The rescue team carefully removed the tyre from around the distressed elephant's neck after it was chemically immobilised. The elephant later returned to its herd," said Bhaskar Choudhury, CWRC's centre head and lead veterinarian at the Wildlife Trust of India.

The incident followed a similar operation a day earlier. On Wednesday morning, an elephant calf was found trapped in a muddy trench at the Seconee Tea Estate near Kaziranga. The herd, which had tried to guide the calf out, eventually moved away. The calf was estimated to be four to six weeks old.

Such trenches, dug around tea estates to keep elephants at bay, are a recurring risk for the animals.

Tea garden workers and nearby villagers alerted the Kaziranga National Park authorities, who in turn sought help from a CWRC team. The calf, dehydrated and suffering from severe muscular exhaustion, was lifted out of the trench and taken to the nearest forest beat office for veterinary care, where it received fluids.

The team waited for the herd to return in search of the calf, but it did not. The calf was later admitted to the CWRC for rehabilitation, joining ten other elephants currently under care at the centre.

"This calf's journey from isolation and distress to safety and care reflects the dedication of local communities, forest officials, and wildlife experts working together. While we always prioritise reunion with the wild herd, rehabilitation offers this calf a second chance at life," Choudhury said.

The two episodes come days after wildlife veterinarians treated a female elephant whose trunk was caught in a wire-mesh snare on the fringes of western Assam's Raimona National Park.