A dramatic visual has emerged of rescue personnel tending to an injured wild tusker in the north-east Indian state of Assam.

The incident took place on July 6 at Tengaposti forest area near Sonitpur district in Assam-Arunachal Pradesh boundary.

The male elephant, identified as Laden, 50, had an injury in the left hind leg from where an iron rod was jutted out.

Locals spotted the pachyderm in the forest area on July 5. However, it was unable to move.

The villagers informed the forest department and the forest officials sent experts from the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), Kaziranga, for the rescue operation.

Veterinary surgeon Rinku Gogoi, along with divisional forest officer, West Sonitpur, Ranjit Konwar, and a medical team from the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), an Indian nature conservation organisation, launched a search operation and found the elephant in a forest area. After attempting thrice they finally tranquilised it.

Officials said the rod was extracted from its leg after three hours.

Forest officials said that there might be a possibility that some poachers had attacked the elephant for its tusk. They added that the villagers might have injured it after it destroyed crops and killed at least two persons.

Wild elephants frequently destroy crops and houses in the area.