Pachyderm: A frail woman’s friend

guwahati: ask parboti baruah where she’s most comfortable and pat comes the reply: ‘‘amongst elephants.’’ this thin, frail middle-aged woman happens to be asia’s - if not the world’s -only woman shikari and handler of elephants, having personally captured around 12 odd jumbos over the years. now associated with the international union for conservation of nature (iucn), barua, who captured her first elephant in assam’s teak forests when she was 14, is worried about the state and region’s dwindling jumbo population.‘‘poaching, not just for ivory but also meat, has become common. for a lot of people in the northeast, elephant meat is a delicacy. this apart, there have been even casualties after running trains knocked down elephant herds,’’ barua said, appealing for increased consciousness to protect jumbos. the inspiration for documentaries like discovery channel’s ‘‘queen of elephant,’’ barua absolves the forest department of most of the blame for the man-animal conflict, which, reports indicate, have increased recently with several elephants being poisoned by villagers in northern assam fearing large-scale depredation. ‘‘it’s not fair to blame the forest department alone. a question we should ask ourselves is whether we, as citizens, are performing our responsibilities to the fullest,’’ she felt. ‘‘we have to manage elephants..at the same time, we have to manage ourselves. electric fencings have to be properly maintained, while squads -comprising of trained men -should be utilised to ward off elephants straying into human settlements.’’ travelling down memory lane, barua, who handles assignments ranging from guiding lost elephants back to their original track to capturing them with her kunki (trained) elephant, recalled her childhood fondly -a time when both men and elephants used to coexist. ‘‘after i captured my first elephant using the mela shikar (lassoing) method, i came back home to a hero(ine)’s welcome. it felt good..it encouraged me. it was our tradition. we never killed elephants, though.’’ elephant shikar runs in her blood. barua’s father, lalji prakritish chandra baruah, was himself into it. ‘‘we even had a few elephants in our house..naturally, i was exposed to jumbos from birth,’’ she said. assam, interestingly, still has the largest number of domesticated elephants in the country. another problem that baruah felt might surface in the long run is the shortage of elephant shikaris and handlers. ‘‘hence, from the iucn, we have suggested that elephant capturing by lassoing should be allowed to continue for non-commercial purposes. after all, it is an art and should be preserved,’’ she suggested.