I have a special
liking for elephants and this news on
Republic Day 2020 eve makes me feel happy !
For the last 32
years, Dr Kushal Konwar Sarma hasn’t taken a single weekend off. Given the
moniker of the Elephant Doctor of India, he has been working with more than 700
jumbos, both wild and rogue bulls, every year. He became a vet in 1983,
obtained his master’s degree in 1986, completed his PhD in veterinary surgery,
and specialised in anaesthesia in elephants by 1994. He is the pioneer of the
remote tranquilising injection technique in the North East. From tranquilising
and capturing 139 rogue jumbos to rescuing and treating hundreds of captive and
injured elephants over the years, Dr Sarma has contributed to the conservation
of the Asian Elephants in India. Notably, he holds a world record for this
feat.
Padma
Awards - one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, are conferred in
three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The
Awards are given in various disciplines/ fields of activities, viz.- art,
social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry,
medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc. ‘Padma
Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; ‘Padma
Bhushan’ for distinguished service of high order and ‘Padma Shri’ for
distinguished service in any field. The awards are announced on the occasion of
Republic Day every year. These awards are conferred by the President of India
at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around
March/ April every year. This year the President has approved conferment of 141
Padma Awards including 4 duo cases (in a duo case, the Award is counted as one)
as per list below. The list comprises of 7 Padma Vibhushan, 16 Padma Bhushan
and 118 Padma Shri Awards. 33 of the awardees are women and the list also
includes 18 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 12
Posthumous awardees.
Assam
veterinarian Dr Kushal Konwar Sarma has been conferred Padma Shri for his
outstanding contribution in the field of wildlife treatment and Asian Elephant
conservation. Dr Sarma is the professor and head of the
Department of Surgery and Radiology of the College of Veterinary Science at
Khanapara in Guwahati. While weekdays
see him as the Head of the Department of Surgery and Radiology in College of
Veterinary Sciences in Guwahati, weekends are spent tailing elephants — either
sick or rogue — across Assam and it befitting that he has been honoured with
Padma award.
It’s a love he says
he can’t describe. A relationship he has worked on for thirty-three long years
— despite the kicks, shoves and near-death experiences that come with it. But
at 60, Dr Kushal Konwar Sarma — one of the 118 Padma Shri awardees announced
for the year 2020 — maintains that his first and only love will always be
elephants. Famous as the “elephant doctor” of Assam, Dr Sarma was awarded the
Padma Shri in the field of medicine on Saturday — along with five other names
from Assam: classical dancer Indira PP Bora (art), writer Lil Bahadur Chettri
(Literature and Education), Dr Ravi Kannan R (Medicine), historian Jogendra
Nath Phukan (Literature and Education).
It is an affinity
that can be traced back to his childhood spent in the village of Barama in
Assam’s Kamrup district, surrounded by forests and rivulets. “My grandmother
had an elephant called Lakshmi — we were best friends, spending all day
together,” he said, “I began to love elephants so much that even at this ripe
old age, I dream of them!” said Dr Sarma.
While it was in 1983 that he became a veterinary doctor, it was only in
1994 that he specialised in anaesthesia in elephants. The years that have
followed have been eventful to say the least, as Dr Sarma has gone on
expedition after expedition to tame rogue elephants on ‘musth’ (aggressive
behaviour in male elephants as a result of surge in testosterone levels), often
risking his own life. But on most days,
Dr Sarma is typically moving around Assam treating ailing animals — whether
they are cows, pigs, hens, goats. “In fact even when the call from the Home
Ministry came, I was treating a pig. I almost did not pick up the call — but
thank god I did!” said Dr Sarma, adding that he never imagined that he was
being considered for an honour as high as the Padma Shri.
In 1998, Dr Sarma led
an expedition to tranquillise a rogue elephant in the forests of Upper Assam.
The elephant had gone on a killing spree trampling to death 29 people, and
among them was forest ranger Narayan Sarmah, the brother-in-law of Dr Sarma.
“That incident scarred me. For a long time after that I was in a state of shock
and I didn’t know what to do,” said Dr Sarma. However, that was one of his rare
failures — till date Dr Sarma has tamed 139 rogue tuskers and treats at least
600-700 elephants on an average every year.
In Assam, where
human-elephant elephant conflict is a major concern, Dr Sarma has emerged as an
important figure who helps relocate wild elephants back into the forests. He is
the first person in Assam to have used tranquilizing darts to subdue ‘musth’
elephants — not only helping save the elephant but people in surrounding
villages too. In Assam, Dr Sarma has
helped relocate wild elephants back into the forests. “However,
till now, we have just treating the ‘symptoms’ — an elephant might walk in to a
main road in the heart of Guwahati city, and we might successfully put it back
into Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary. But that is no reason to celebrate because we
have done nothing to treat the real disease: encroachment,” he said. The
Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary is located on the eastern periphery of Guwahati and
is known to have a lot of “illegal” settlements on forested land.
“The explosion of
human population is what has created the problem. And we have deprived animals
their legitimate space,” said Dr Sarma, “In Assam today, a term frequently used
in political discourse is ‘khilonjiya’ or ‘indigenous’ — the original
inhabitants of the land. Actually the ‘khilonjiya’ is not people of a
particular community or religion. The khilonjiya is the forest, the trees, the
animals, the plants, the fish, the elephants, the birds. This land belongs to
them.”
Interesting !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
25.1.2020
-with inputs from
many web sources; mostly reproduced from the Indian Express article.
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