'No Elephants Sent Outside Assam': CM Himanta Refutes Reports Of Animals Being Transported To Gujarat

Himanta 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.

File photo of Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Source : PTI

The Assam government has asserted that no elephants were transported outside the state and denied 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.

Himanta 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.

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.@assamforest @assampolice pic.twitter.com/YaLg3sWoE8

— Chief Minister Assam (@CMOfficeAssam) January 20, 2025

The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), meanwhile, 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,” the CMO said in a post on X.

The videos of animals being transported in animal ambulances had led to a political slugfest in Assam as the state Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah 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. 

The speculations surfaced after reports claimed that the elephants were being taken from Assam to Vantara. However, Vantara received elephants that were rescued from the logging industry in Arunachal Pradesh.

Meanwhile, Anant Ambani's Vantara is leading efforts to promote animal care and providing lifelong care for the elephants where they will live chain-free and will never be forced into labor. The clarification from the Assam CMO has resolved the misinformation surrounding the relocation of elephants.