Yesterday as most of us were going about our day, finding a way to earn more money or get more fame or in pursuit of our other life goals, something happened that was a cry for help. I got a news app notification that read, ‘Rhino Sleeps on the Road’. This was coming from Assam, near Kaziranga National Park.
Remember how we learnt about Kaziranga in geography lectures at school (Now it’s coming back you)? And then, we passed our exams and forgot about it. The national park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has 35 mammalian species alone, 15 among them are in the endangered list.
Every year in the monsoon the famous Kaziranga National Park floods. The entire national park is situated in a low lying area, on the banks of the river Brahmaputra. All the animals — leopards, tigers, rhinos, elephants and others have their lives at risk. So many baby animals are orphaned and so many mothers lose their babies.
This year, the state is facing its sixth worse flood since 1988. Some experts say that floods are necessary for Assam.
But this year alone more than 86 innocent animals have already died. On the bright side, more than 125 animals have been rescued.
Humans may have adapted how to deal with the floods but have you thought about the animals? The situation is really bad for them. They can’t speak. They have lost most of their homes because we wanted to build ours. It is terrifying.
While I was wondering about how our planet would be without animals because we seem to take them for granted across the world, I received a message from Dr. Bhaskar Choudhury, a wildlife veterinarian at Kaziranga National Park who works with the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).
I had been in talks with him and Dr. Samshul Ali who is also a wildlife veterinarian at Kaziranga National Park for a podcast.
They are wildlife warriors who face dangerous situations to save the lives of animals, treat them and then release them back in the wild. Dr. Bhaskar told me a story of how they had rescued an elephant who had swam through and reached Guwahati to escape the floods.
On July 12, a 45-year-old elephant was spotted near Guwahati. They noticed that she had signs of developed mammary glands indicating she was lactating.
She was a mama elephant and it was most likely that her calf had fallen into the gushing river!
The warriors think that this was the reason why she swam through the river — only motherhood could make her take such a massive risk.
Walking, she reached a hillock that was surrounded by thick human settlements. This area where she was found had a lot of swamps and very few highlands.
The elephant was exhausted. She was distraught after losing her calf. She was lost.
Dr. Bhaskar was a part of a brave team who had people from the Assam Forest Department, WTI IFAW and the Assam State Zoo. They together went to great lengths to rescue this elephant.
They tried for four days before they could rescue the elephant and relocate her back to the forest. On the first day, the elephant ran into a swamp that had 8-feet water!
But that didn’t stop these warriors – they kept going. The team escorted the distraught elephant to safety with the help of Kunki elephants. Because the animals don’t know that these warriors are trying to help them they run. Thanks to our cruel past actions that make animals fear us! The team has to dart the animal to render them unconscious, treat them and then transport them.
They did that, tried multiple times.
My words won’t do justice. Look at this video:
This is just one of the many stories the wildlife warriors of Assam have to tell, but listening to it made me feel good. Maybe it will make you feel good too. The animals of Kaziranga are in safe hands.
The least we can do is laud their efforts, help the animals that are there around us who are going through a lot of displacement and pain already and be kind.
Special thanks to Ragini Shankar, Programme Officer at the Wildlife Trust of India, for helping me get in touch with the wildlife warriors.
Keep watching this space for more about what the wildlife warriors do! Will share a link to a Spotify original podcast ‘Yeh Desh Hai Mastaanon Ka’ produced by Ofspin Media Friends with them talking about their experiences soon!