By Rakibul Waheed
Nagaon: What 40-year-old Binod Dulu Borah does today was probably scripted when he was barely a nine-year-old kid. A dream the child saw that fateful night left an indelible mark on his psyche. Though he shared the contents of his dream with his father, it quickly made sense the moment, the dream turned into a reality. A villager ran towards Dulu's house and informed his father that an elephant calf had fallen into a pond. Soon, all the villagers ran to the site and saved the calf. As Dulu saw the entire rescue process, he was moved - and to such an extent that he made saving animals his motto in life.
Recollecting the three-decade old dream, he says, "I was a third standard student. That night I dreamt of playing with an elephant calf. Suddenly the calf asked me that if it falls in a pond near the village the next day, would I be able to save him. I woke up disturbed and narrated the dream to my father the next morning." However, nobody paid heed to his dream. But in some time, a villager came running to inform Dulu's father that an elephant calf has fallen into the village pond and got stuck. "All the villagers ran to the site and saved the elephant calf," reminisced Dulu, adding, "The way everyone helped the elephant and rescued it, touched me."
Hailing from Chapanala area Nagaon district in Assam, Binod since then, has not only been rescuing distressed wildlife but also helping change people's attitude towards animals and reptiles. "It is important for humans to live in peaceful coexistence with animals," says Dulu, who has been cultivating paddy on 200 bighas of land located on the fringe area of the village just because the elephants get food to eat and thereby not destroy villagers' fields.
Also known as a Hati Bandhu (Friend of the elephants), Dulu's work was highly appreciated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in one of the January 2025 episodes of Mann Ki Baat. The PM hailed Dulu's effort of planting paddy to feed the gentle giants.
His area of work does not limit to larger beings in the wild. While growing up, even the sight of caged birds hurt Dulu. He was unable to process the thought that the free birds should be limited to cages. "I started saving from my pocket money and bought the caged birds only to release them in the forests located close to our house. The sight of birds flying towards the sky after they were uncaged made me happy," said Dulu.
As he grew up, people started informing him of injured birds. "I would visit the place and rescue the bird. After helping the bird with some treatment, I would release it in the wild. This is how my attachment with the wildlife continued to grow," he adds.
People soon started approaching him to rescue venomous snakes as well. "Lots of people die every year due to snake bites. I have learnt to catch the snakes but I do not kill them, because they are important for the eco-system. I release them in the wild," he says with concern that most people are not aware snakes are important as they help control rodent population, disperse seeds, and prevent the spread of diseases. There is an instinctive response to kill snakes whenever they are seen which is wrong, he advocates.
"However, things are changing these days. Now people in our area are aware. They inform us and we catch them and release them in the nearby forests," said Dulu, who is a frontline member of Hati Bandhu, the organisation that works for elephants. He decided to unite the villagers and grow paddy for the elephants in the government land that falls between the human habitation and the forest in 2018. It was noticed that during harvest, they witnessed a change in elephant behaviour. The pachyderms, with a strong memory, restricted themselves to the paddy grown for them and did not raid the paddy fields in the villages.
Dulu has so far rescued elephants, birds, different species of reptiles and other wildlife.
"Dulu's initiative has created awareness about the need for peaceful coexistence between the humans and wildlife in these areas. Earlier there used to be incidents of snake killing. Now since there is awareness, most of the people inform Dulu who takes care to catch and release the creatures into the wild," said Forest Officer Pranab Kumar Borah. Incidents of snake killings have reduced drastically in areas under Nagaon district, Borah added.
Thanking his wife Meghna Mayur Hazarika for her support to his works, Dulu says, "I am lucky to have found another wildlife lover in Meghna. Meghna is equally sensitive towards the issues concerning our biodiversity and wildlife. She never stops me from going out to work saving these wildlife and reptiles even at odd hours. Villagers too repose their faith on me. These are the things that keep me going," signs off Dulu.
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