IWN News

A Mutilated Assam Elephant Finally Gets the Surgery He Needed

Asian elephant drawing, reproduced from the book Birds and nature. This image was taken from Flickr's The Commons. The copyright is in the public domain because it has expired.

IWN Report — Thursday, 27 August 2026

A domesticated elephant named Mangal Singh underwent emergency dental surgery in Margherita, Assam, on Wednesday, more than three months after poachers sawed off both his tusks. The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), which led the veterinary team, says the procedure was needed to close infected pulp cavities that had left the animal in continuing pain.

Poachers attacked the 16-year-old tusker in April in the Dhulijan forest area of Lakhipathar, within the Digboi forest division of Assam’s Tinsukia district, hacking off both tusks near the root. Mangal Singh, who is privately owned by a resident of Margherita, was left with exposed pulp cavities and severe bleeding. Local residents alerted the Digboi Forest Department after hearing the elephant’s distressed cries, and government veterinary teams began emergency treatment soon afterwards.

The infection persisted despite months of monitoring. Rather than move Mangal Singh to unfamiliar surroundings, WTI’s Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) chose to treat him where he was. On Wednesday, a joint veterinary team led by WTI’s Dr Bhaskar Choudhury carried out a partial pulpotomy, a procedure to seal the exposed cavities in both tusks. The team included retired elephant-anaesthesia specialist Dr Bhupen Sarma, an orthodontic team from Tinsukia led by Dr Abhishek Ojha, and vets from Assam’s Animal Husbandry Department.

Dr Choudhury, CWRC’s centre manager and lead vet on the case, called it “disheartening to see this majestic sub-adult tusker suffer such brutality,” and said the episode points to gaps in how captive elephants under private ownership are protected. Digboi’s Divisional Forest Officer, Rohini Kumar Das, said local vets had been treating Mangal Singh for months, but closing the exposed cavities required Wednesday’s specialised procedure, and the department will monitor his recovery over the coming week.

WTI chief executive Jose Louies said the case shows the physical and psychological toll the illegal ivory trade takes on individual animals, and called for stronger vigilance against wildlife crime. CWRC, near Kaziranga National Park, is run jointly by the Assam Forest Department, WTI and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

Sources: Wildlife Trust of India