This wildlife conservationist from Assam has rescued over 2,500 animals till date
Thirty-eight-year-old Binod Borah has saved over 2,500 animals, including snakes, elephants, deer, and flying squirrel, and has planted thousands of banana trees to provide greenery and food to wild elephants.
As a seven-year-old, Binod Borah, a resident of Nagaon located in Assam’s Chapanalla village, rescued an elephant calf, which had fallen in a neighbour’s well.
This was his first animal rescue, and since then, Borah rose to fame and has come to be known as the elephant man.
Over the years, Borah, now 38, has saved over 2,500 animals, and is now a member of an Assam-based NGO called Green Guards Nature Organisation (GGNO).
Borah with an elephant he rescued, source Indian Express
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Recognising his contribution to the conservation of wildlife, Borah was awarded for Conservation through Innovation by the Balipara Foundation in 2014. Following this, in the same year, he also became a recipient of Wildlife Services Award from Sanctuary Asia.
A wildlife lover
Borah has so far saved nearly 2,500 animals including three elephant calves, two leopard cubs, three bear cubs, more than 20 deer, six slow lorises, 10 Chinese pangolins, over 600 snakes, hares, flying squirrel, monkeys, mongoose, geckos, and hundreds of birds, reports Northeast Now.
Borah says, he learnt the art of saving animals not by any expert, but by watching the Discovery Channel.
Source Indian Express
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Speaking about saving animals, he told Indian Express,
Earlier, I used to catch snakes with my bare hands. Now, I have started using the equipment.
Animal saviour
Speaking about elephants losing their habitat to human settlement, Bohra said,
Elephants have lost their habitat, and so they come down in search of food, thereby destroy crops. You feel for the farmers also as these crops are their livelihood.
Hence, Borah started planting banana trees to provide elephants with food and a habitable environment. So far, Borah has planted 25,000 trees in 32 acres of land located 10 kms from Karbi Hills, Nagaon district in Assam.
Borah receiving Sanctuary Asia Wildlife Service award in 2014, source Indian Express
As a member of GGNO, Borah also conducts awareness programmes among local communities on the importance of wildlife conservation and how community participation can have an impact on it. He has also maintained a network of informers from the communities who alert him in case of any suspicious activities.
Besides saving animals, two years ago, Bohra convinced around 35 tribal hunters to stop hunting wild animals and instead take up farming to support their livelihood. Sharing his thoughts on this, he said,
If I don’t help these people, tomorrow they might be tempted to kill an animal again. I grew up among animals. I have a strange sense of empathy towards them,” reports Indian Express.
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