Written by: Mubina Akhtar
The elephant could barely move, but as I went near, I felt the profound intensity of its direct gaze and instantly sensed a deep connection. I could see both pain and trust in its eyes. It was overwhelming—as if it were communicating its distress. For the first time, I experienced the emotional intelligence of an elephant, a moment that will stay with me forever. I started calling it “Numal” in my mind.
“The elephant strayed out of the adjacent Karbi Anglong forests and crossed over to the Numaligarh Tea Estate. Locals from the tea garden informed us about the solitary elephant roaming in Sector 27 of the estate. Our forest staff found that the elephant was sick and kept it under constant observation. We found its excreta full of plastic content. It was likely that the elephant consumed something wrapped in plastic, perhaps jaggery wrapped in thin layers of polythene,” said a member of the forest beat office at Bokial, near Numaligarh in Golaghat district.
The elephant’s stomach was heavily swollen. A team from the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), based in Kaziranga National Park, reached the spot and administered IV infusion to combat severe dehydration in the young adult elephant, worsened by acute starvation. “After treatment, it managed to lift itself up and started walking. However, by nightfall, its condition deteriorated.” The forest team monitoring “Numal” tried to keep him warm by kindling a fire near him through the night.
The next morning (January 12, 2026), as we arrived at the spot, we found that—except for his alert eyes—the elephant’s body had almost given in. I tried to contact a specialized doctor from CWRC, but he was unavailable. The other specialized veterinarian was engaged in another emergency involving a buffalo at the Bagori Range. CWRC asked the forest team to make arrangements to transport the elephant to the centre.
The sun climbed high as the hours passed. Arrangements were made. The veterinarian from CWRC reached the spot and quickly administered IV infusion to stabilize the sick elephant over the next couple of hours. By the following hour, slings were placed under its body and connected to an excavator. The elephant was then lifted and loaded onto a trailer for transport to the centre. The ordeal of the emergency rescue was taking its toll on the pachyderm. It was also evident how such methods fail to meet safe animal welfare standards. Although the trauma of the rescue seemed to have lowered Numal’s chances of survival, I held onto hope and refused to let my heart break as the trailer disappeared from view.
Numal survived for barely a couple of hours more. “Had there been timely medical intervention, it could actually have survived,” said Bedanta Baruah, a local conservation worker who had been helping the forest team. The tragic death of the elephant was a painful reminder of the critical need for specialized vets, especially in areas where pachyderms roam.
Numal’s predicament was not an isolated one. “There were actually five injured elephants in the area. One had an injury below the forehead with a visible lump; the second had a skin injury on the belly; the third and fourth had visibility issues; and the fifth was Durga,” said local forest department sources. The first two elephants healed without treatment, while a wild adult female elephant—Durga—has been roaming with a dead radio collar that has severely restricted her mobility, the Bokial Beat staff reported.
“Durga,” as called by locals, was seen with a heavy radio collar around her neck that had become non-functional and was causing severe discomfort. “The radio collar was fitted in 2023 by the Asian Nature Conservation Foundation in collaboration with the local forest department. Despite the collar becoming non-functional and creating a potential health crisis for the elephant, there has been no attempt to relieve the struggling elephant of the heavy object stuck around its neck—either by the NGO that installed it or by the forest department,” reports stated.
Radio collars are GPS-enabled devices fitted to matriarchs or bulls to track movements in real time in human-elephant conflict-prone zones. These are heavy, usually weighing more than 10 kg. Conservation workers monitoring Durga said the elephant developed a tumour that worsened over time and lost sight in her right eye. They alleged that the forest department had done nothing for her treatment, adding: “It seemed that the elephant’s vision has been impaired. As a result, it has become vulnerable to attacks by other wild elephants and has entered human settlements, creating insecurity on both sides.”
Handling of Endangered Animals by Inexperienced Vets Hinders Conservation
The recent death of a 13-month-old elephant calf after it was allegedly administered an expired drug caused deep resentment among conservationists in Assam and raised serious questions over the medical expertise involved. The incident occurred during a free treatment camp in the Kumsang Reserve Forest under the Doomdooma Forest Division. While a departmental inquiry into the calf’s death has been initiated, local NGOs and activists have questioned the credentials of the NGO involved.
The environmental NGO, working in collaboration with the Assam forest department, has come under scrutiny, as the doctors and treatment provided during the camp were entirely its responsibility, local forest staff revealed. “Treatment and rescue involving wildlife require expertise and careful handling. We feel the veterinarians at the free treatment camp were not trained enough. Handling delicate cases without specialized veterinarians amounts to wildlife crime. Mishaps on the ground have eroded public trust even in reputed organizations entrusted with treatment, rescue, and rehabilitation of wildlife,” said an animal rights activist on condition of anonymity.
Earlier, in a horrific incident on April 15, poachers sawed off the tusks of a captive elephant at Lakhipathar under the Digboi Forest Division. The tragic incident left the elephant, named Mangal Singh, in critical condition, triggering public outrage. Suspected to be a case of organized poaching for ivory, authorities registered a case under the Wildlife (Protection) Act.
The incident brought to the surface gaps in the protection and safety of even domesticated elephants, while raising concerns over the inadequate rapid-response mechanism. Reports say the elephant bled for days before receiving treatment. Although such situations demand immediate veterinary aid to ensure survival and recovery, in many cases, when the forest department sought assistance from veterinarians, the required help was not available.
Although the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was instructed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to appoint full-time veterinary doctors in tiger reserves and build the capacity of veterinarians from animal husbandry departments posted near tiger reserves to deal with wildlife emergencies, this has not been implemented adequately. This affects conservation, as many protected areas suffer from weak management of disease transmission at the wild-livestock interface.
In a state like Assam, with high wildlife populations, there is no separate cadre of wildlife veterinarians under the Forest Department. This often leads to delayed emergency responses. The acute shortage of trained veterinary professionals has also been felt in human-animal conflict zones across the state.
To overcome the shortage, collaborations have been made with specialized units of national and international organizations. The Assam forest department collaborated with the Wildlife Trust of India and its specialized unit—CWRC—based in Kaziranga National Park. However, with very few trained professionals, it remains inadequate to cater to wildlife emergencies across the state. The situation demands an immediate response, as the shortage has cost Assam valuable wildlife.
In Assam, much of the wildlife rescue, treatment, translocation, and rehabilitation work has been handled by veterinarians at CWRC. However, the facility appears to have lost some of its expert handlers to the zoo at Jamnagar, as has reportedly happened in other states as well.
New Challenges and Gaps in Wildlife Treatment and Rescue
There have been reports that the country faces a severe shortage of specialized wildlife veterinarians. Hiring veterinarians from animal husbandry departments on a contractual basis may be a temporary solution, but it cannot substitute for the expertise of professionally trained wildlife veterinarians.
A retired veterinary officer, who requested anonymity, feels the absence of wildlife education institutions in the state has contributed to the shortage. “The very few specialized wildlife veterinarians in the state actually have a personal passion for the work rather than formal specialized training. Their passion has led them to train themselves through zoos and rescue centres outside the state and abroad.
“When we were students, the emphasis was on livestock, and that remains largely true today. But the times demand that we give equal emphasis to wildlife in our courses as well,” he added.
“There have been a plethora of problems challenging conservation—from managing frequent and fatal human-animal interactions to dealing with emerging diseases. We need a well-coordinated, robust veterinary ecosystem in the country for treatment and rescue of wild animals. At the moment, the whole system has gone for a toss, with the best in the field joining private facilities or zoos like the one in Jamnagar. Temporary contracts and low salaries force new veterinarians to leave the system, lured by greener pastures elsewhere,” he added further.
Given the increasing complexity of specialized tasks, there is an urgent need to create a separate cadre of specialized veterinarians within the forest department.