A major section of Mitra's work on art and poetry is devoted to Gwalior, where he grew up. His close friendship with the Maratha royal families resulted in his drawing a series of watercolour involving poetry which he exhibited in South Africa and India. A Slow Train to Gwalior is a coffee-table book of his art and poetry; a compact disc of his recitation with a backdrop of African traditional music was released by the Premier of Eastern Cape, Nosimo Balindlela, and a short documentary film on his Gwalior poetry was shown at the GrahamstownNational Arts Festival in 2009. In 2007 he was invited by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, where he presented his work to a poetry-loving audience.
As surgeon
Mitra's work in trauma surgery took him to Bhutan, where he worked at high-altitude hospitals of Chukha, Tsimalakha, Chimakothi and Thimphu under severe conditions. During these times he wrote poems about Bhutan, some of which were translated into French. He wrote about his adventures in his search for the utopian Shangri La. Khushwant Singh, the former editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India visited him to his hospital in Bhutan and wrote about him in his weekly columns, "With Malice Towards One and All" in the Times of India during the 1980s. Mitra later went to Arunachal Pradesh, where he joined as an orthopaedic surgeon at Along. He joined as an orthopaedic surgeon at Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in 1993. He lived in Bulawayo's Mzilikazi township and narrated his experiences during the time of political turmoil.
As artist
His present art is about the black township of Mdantsane, where he works at the Cecilia Makiwane Hospital. Mdantsane Breathing is his book on the art and poetry of Mdantsane. Dr. Mitra received on 15 December 2018, the Provincial Eastern Cape Minister of Art and Culture's Special Award in the category of Fine Arts for his continued dedication to South African Arts Dr. Mitra gifted the charcoal portrait done by him of Dr. Neil Aggett on 21 March 2019 at the 13th Annual Neil Aggett Memorial Lecture at Kingswood College, Grahamstown.The lecture takes place each year to celebrate the life of Neil Aggett and to honour his legacy. Dr Amitabh Mitra, was a special guest at this year’s lecture as he presented the school with a charcoal drawing that he drew of Neil Aggett. This drawing is one very few visual representations of Aggett and will be displayed in the Kingswood College Museum. The University of Cape Town honors and commemorates woman heroes of anti-apartheid struggle which includes Cecilia Makiwane. A charcoal portrait of Cecilia Makiwane done by Dr.Amitabh Mitra was exhibited at the Molly Blackburn Hall, University of Cape Town campus on 19 September 2019.
As poet
He translated the Bengali poetry of the late Prabhatkiran Bose, well known children's author in Bengal during the 1950s. Mitra's art and poetry on the township of Mdantsane, South Africa, was exhibited at the 2011 International Symposium for Poetry and Medicine and Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine Awards on Saturday, 7 May 2011, entitled Poems from Cecilia Makiwane Hospital. Splinters of a Mirage Dawn, An Anthology of Migrant Poetry of South Africa was short listed for the NationalHumanities and Social Sciences Award, South Africa, 2016.
