Ex-poacher to get award for bravery

"I have killed several animals, including endangered species like the tiger and rhino in my previous avatar as a poacher. That was for money," says Barkachari, who has come from Assam to take the cash award of Rs 10,000.

Braving automatic weapons and other sophisticated arms used by dreaded forest brigands, Barkachari who was motivated by the late S Debray, the then field director at the park after the former’s two years of imprisonment in 1982, has only one aim — "Live in the wilds for the wild".

"I have shot dead 28 poachers in more than 100 encounters during my 15 years of service at the park which has been facing grave threats from poachers from within and outside the State and insurgents," a rustic looking Barkachari, who feels "out of woods" in this concrete jungle, says with pride.

Fear is something which this tribal warrior has never experienced. The illiterate forest guard, who has also transformed his brother and his villagers from their hunting days, says, "I go inside the thick forest even in the middle of the night for patrol…Animals recognise me as their friend while poachers dread my sight."

The dreaded forest brigands are also fearful of Barkachari’s colleague and "leader" of the forest guards, Babulal Orang who has become a synonym for terror among the poachers.

"Wildlife is my life," says Orang who has been protecting the Manas Tiger Reserve since 1974 and selected for the bravery award.

In the last 14 years, Orang, who became a forest guard from a patrol mahout in 1984, has been involved in over 100 encounters with poachers and miscreants in the trouble-torn tiger reserve.

"In these encounters 32 poachers have been shot dead. The last two were in May and September this year when two poachers were killed," Orang says showing marks of bullet wounds on his left arm and leg received during the encounters.

Narrating an incident when they encountered a group of over 20 poachers, Orang says, "Once on a normal patrol, we came across several footprints which led us to a huge camp of hunters. Once we challenged them there was continuous firing from the other end with self loading rifles.

"But our party comprising just five men put up a brave fight with country-made rifles and all desperados but one escaped and we burnt down their tents."

The Rambos of the forest are, however, a scared lot when they venture out of the woods, afraid to set foot on the busy Delhi roads as speeding vehicles whiz past them. Even back home they seldom step out of the jungle fearing retaliation from the poachers who are camping in plenty in and around the area.

For Barkachari and Orang, the forest is the safest place. "We are not able to go out of the forest, they (the poachers) will shoot us at the first sight," says Orang, who along with Barkachari, was once surrounded by the forest mafia in an adjacent market place.

"That day we escaped. But we are not sure what will happen next time," Orang and Barkachari exclaim though they put up a brave front: "We are ready to die for wildlife".

Though these guards venture into the forest to dare the poachers risking their life for the cause of wildlife, the government does not seem to have recognised their valour enough.

"We do not have sophisticated weapons to match the might of the poachers who come with state-of-the-art arms. Moreover, we get frustrated when we are deprived of our benefits and people sitting in the office get promotions," they rue.

"Since the job is transferable, most of the forest guards have sought transfer and moved to safer places and there is a tremendous shortage of staff in our park, which incidentally is a haven for the Bodo militants," Orang says.

Orang and Barkachari’s only wish after they landed in New Delhi on Wednesday is to go to the zoo. "We feel at home with animals. The hustle and bustle is driving us crazy."

The five bravery award winners include Saroj Kumar Mohanty who has been instrumental in checking illegal trafficking in wildlife and wildlife products in the Similipal Tiger Reserve in Orissa.

With rare investigative qualities, he went in the guise of a trader and unearthed a tusk weighing 20 kg and arrested the poacher who was sentenced for three-and-a-half years.

On many occasions he has brought back wild animals that had strayed from the protected area.

On November 10 last, on a mission to drive back a herd of wild elephants that had strayed from the forests into a paddy field, Mohanty was badly injured when an adult female charged at him and picked up in her trunk, tossed him in the air and trampled him.

Since he fell on a marshy land, the impact of the fall was lessened. But he suffered multiple fractures in the arm and collar bone and his ribs were broken. He is recovering in a nursing home in Balasore and will miss the award function.

Ram Kumar, a daily wager at the Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh, has been selected for the award for evicting encroachers from the park. He killed two of them while receiving a bullet.

A Udayan, the Wildlife Warden of Mudumali National Park, is the fifth recipient of the award for fighting poachers and saving the tuskers.