HAVING THE RANGE

How women rangers at Assam's Kaziranga National Park are breaking stereotypes to make the forest their own

- Ivy Farheen Hussain

IN Burapahar, the western-most range of Kaziranga National Park (KNP), it is the State Rhino Protection Force (SRPF) that guards the vulnerable greater one-horned rhinoceros. Alongside the group's 74 men, there are eight female forest rangers who have made it their duty to safeguard this sensitive region.

When I reach the Burapahar Range office in early September 2021, I find four of the eight-Jonti Sarkar, Beauty Pegu, Bhagyawati Gwala, and Sumala Doley-chatting amongst themselves before duty begins. The women, all in their early twenties, are dressed in crisp, camo uniforms. SLRs (self-loading rifles) dangle from their shoulders.

As much as there are far more women opting for frontline forest jobs today, these women still make for a startling sight. While their fingers are wrapped around the comb of their rifles, their nails, I see, are painted; bangles rest alongside waterproof watches on their wrists; neatly bound in beautiful waterfall braids, their hair is carefully tucked under their caps. "But, don't be fooled', says Jukti Bora, Forester 1 of the Burapahar range, with pride, "they are fierce".

As these rangers open up to me about their life and work, their senior's boast is vindicated.

CALL OF DUTY

Sarkar, Pegu, Gwala, and Doley together joined the SRPF in 2016, and they have since become family. Assigned to Burapahar and parts of Bagori, they have been trained in river patrolling, false fire drills, the handling of arms, and other highland duties to deter poachers. They work day and night, on land and on water (especially during the monsoon when Kaziranga famously floods).

"I did not leave a single stone unturned when training these girls", says Pradip Goswami, Burapahar's former range officer. Because these girls have "junoon" (passion), he says, they often end up doing better than the boys.