4.6 kg elephant tusks seized in Assam

GUWAHATI

The police in northeastern Assam’s Dhemaji district, and officials of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, seized two elephant tusks weighing 4.6 kg from a man on Saturday (August 23, 2025).

A district police officer said the man, travelling in a hatchback, was arrested from Chiga village near Jonai town. He is being interrogated to get to a wider network of ivory smugglers suspected to be active in the region bordering Arunachal Pradesh.

“Our objective is to dismantle the network of illegal ivory trade linked to organised crime in Assam and the region beyond,” the officer said.

Assam is estimated to have 5,700 wild elephants. Human-elephant conflicts are frequent in the State.

Calf rescued

On the brighter side, Forest officials rescued an elephant calf trapped in a deep, muddy pit near a village on the fringes of the Kaziranga National Park on Friday (August 22, 2025).

Officials said villagers informed them after spotting the trapped calf in the morning. An excavator was used to create a pathway and nudge the calf to safety.

The operation took two hours, officials said.