The river is born in Tibet, as Yarlung Tsangpo, from where it flows through India as Siang in Arunachal Pradesh and later as Brahmaputra in Assam before becoming Jamuna in Bangladesh, where it empties out into the Bay of Bengal. A life giver and taker in equal measure, every year during the monsoons, the river displaces not only thousands of people but also much of the wildlife inside the Kaziranga National Park.
Deforestation in the Brahmaputra watershed has resulted in increased levels of siltation, flash floods, and soil erosion in critical downstream habitats such as Kaziranga. As the river swells, many of the animals in the Park scamper to safer grounds, migrating into the surrounding hills, which are on the other side of the National Highway 37 that cuts through the Park.
It is at this time that the job of the forest guards here becomes more important than at any other, since the fleeing animals are easy targets for poachers. Working in tandem with the Village Defence Protection (VDP), a group of volunteers from local villages put together by the NGO Aaranyak, they keep the wildlife as safe as they can. The guards have to make sure that none of the rhinos or other wild animals cross over to the neighbouring insurgency affected Karbi Anglong district, as the challenges there are greater still. Working day and night, therefore, they herd the rhinos towards the local Burha Pahar range.
It’s a battle of wits and might against poachers, who have hunted over 200 rhinos in the last decade alone. The Assam government and the guards have stepped up their act in recent years though, and in 2014, 19 poachers were killed while exchanging fire. That 22 rhinos were poached in the same period is a different matter, of course. But the guards won’t give up yet.
( Dhruba Duttais a Guwahati-based photographer. His photo book, Brahmaputra: Stories of Life and Death will be published later this year. )