No elephants transported outside the state in recent past: Assam govt

Guwahati, Jan 20 (PTI) The Assam government asserted on Monday that no elephants were transported outside in the recent past, dismissing speculations that a convoy of animal ambulances ferried jumbos from the northeastern state.

“I categorically state, with all the authority at my command, that the elephants shown being transported in vehicles over the last two days are not from Assam,” Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a post on X.

He was responding to a post by Mukrang Engti, the founder of Karbi Anglong Animal Welfare Society, on X in which he had sought clarification over media reports regarding the matter.

A convoy of animal ambulances was captured on camera travelling through Assam from a neighbouring state over the past two days.

Elephants were being transported in at least some of these vehicles, which bore Gujarat registration number plates, with one of the jumbos visible with its trunk over the open hood of the animal ambulance.

The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), in another post, maintained that news and social media posts claiming Assam elephants were being transported as false.

“It is hereby clarified that no elephants have been transported from Assam in the recent past. Certain news items and social media posts published linking Assam to such activities are completely unwarranted and false,” it said.

Meanwhile, state Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah, reacting to the reports, blamed the CM for the incident.

“I have seen yesterday’s photograph. It has really hurt me,” he said, noting that elephants are known to be intelligent animals and such movements would cause them distress.

He alleged that Sarma, for his “political and financial gains”, can send these animals to a private zoo outside the state.

“A leader must not think only with his brain, but also use his heart,” the Congress leader said. PTI SSG RBT