Assam: Elephant stuck in Brahmaputra river for nearly 100 hours, forest dept yet to rescue the jumbo

While forest officials have so far failed to do anything to bring the jumbo out of the water, local people are feeding the jumb

Four days have passed by, an elephant is still stuck in the waters of the mighty Brahmaputra in Tezpur, Assam. Heart wrenching indeed.

Despite nearly 100 hours since the incident occured, the forest department so far has not been able to rescue the jumbo.

While forest officials have so far failed to do anything to bring the jumbo out of the water, local people are feeding the jumbo. They alleged that the forest department was slow in it’s response.

One of them said, “The first day we saw the elephant, it was healthy. We informed the forest department, but they arrived too late. They are slow in what needs to be done. They should have supplied adequate food to the elephant, but we are ashamed to say that they brought only around half kg of pulses to feed the jumbo.

“Whatever way possible, the elephant needs to be rescued, it should not be allowed to die,”said another local.

As per information shared by Assam Forests and environment minister Chandramohan Patowary in March this year, the elephant population in the state currently is over 5,700.

The minister said 1,330 elephants have died between 2001 and 2022, with the highest number of deaths reported in 2013 when 107 pachyderms died.

Among the various reasons for the deaths, 509 died of natural causes, 261 succumbed to unknown reasons, 202 were electrocuted, 102 died in train accidents, 65 due to poisoning, 40 were poached and 18 after being hit by lightning.

COMMENTS