Addo's conservation man: 30 years of boots on the ground

The first qualified Indian game ranger in the country, Anban Padayachee has spent decades dedicated to wildlife protection, working in one of the most biodiverse parks on the continent

- By Julia Evans

No two days in Anban Padayachee's life look the same or can be predicted.

On Tuesday, 20 May, Addo Elephant National Park's conservation manager was inside a boma by 8am, helping his team wrestle a five-tonne buffalo. Alongside SANParks veterinarians and park rangers, Padayachee was overseeing routine disease screening before the animal's sale at the Kirkwood Wildsfees auction.

By lunchtime, he was standing in front of journalists, explaining how his team had successfully translocated 42 elephants to another section of the park for ecological balance the previous week.

Later that day, he was back in the bush, in the Kabouga section where he began his career at Addo 23 years ago, scanning thickets to check on the elephants' resettlement.

"There's no typical day," he said. "As much as we want to plan things and have meetings - you wake up and there's a burst pipe, an animal that needs rescuing, a fence that needs fixing. So there's no typical day, and to be honest, I prefer it that way. Otherwise it'd be just like a normal profession where you go to the office. It keeps us on our toes."

After 30 years, Padayachee has learned to always keep a spare pair of boots in the car.

"He lives for his job," says Johan Swart, one of the founders of the Kirkwood Wildsfees, who has worked with him for two decades. "He's a good speaker, disciplined. He knows what he's talking about."