Overview

• Forest department and district administration teams mandated a three-day medical rest for Maniki in Makum, arranging her imminent truck transfer to Kaziranga or Guwahati.
• The intervention followed public uproar over a viral video showing the elephant struggling along a highway with a mahout on her back.
• Owner Ruchi Chetia defied official guidelines that require injured elephants to be transported by vehicle, forcing the 48-year-old animal to cover only 36 km of a planned 95 km trek.
• Veterinarians treating Maniki noted her permanently bent left foreleg from a logging accident in Arunachal Pradesh two years ago had never healed properly, causing her chronic limp and severe discomfort.
• Authorities are reviewing potential legal action against the handler, highlighting longstanding enforcement gaps in Assam’s wildlife transport regulations.