This Planter Doesn't Stop The Elephants

As a child, Tenzing survived a militant attack on his family. He went on to pioneer elephant-friendly tree plantaions.

- Abdul Gani from Udalguri

ON a cool October evening in 1996, staccato bursts from aut­omatic rifles rang through a small village in Assam’s Udalguri district, along the foothills of the Himalayas. Seven people lay dead, including a seven­day­old baby and his convalescing mother. In the family of Dhaniram Boro, head­ man of Kachibari, only two members survived—Tenzing Bodosa, just 10 years old then, and his mother, who were not at home when the family was attacked by militants of the now­defunct Bodo Liberation Tigers. The headman had incurred their wrath by refusing to provide food or shelter to its cadres. “Our own people killed us,” says Tenzing.

“I was left with only my mother. Since then it’s been a learning experience—every hour of my life taught me certain things and made me stronger. I even worked as a sweeper in a private school in Guwahati before going to Shillong, Bangalore and then Malaysia (to earn a living).”

While working with a Malaysian construction company, Tenzing learnt to drive, repair machinery, use the internet and speak English. These skills helped when he returned home in 2006. When his mother asked him to return, he also found his calling in life—to create an ecosystem beneficial to both human beings and wildlife, especially elephants, around his village, some 130 km from state capital Guwahati. He started with a tea garden on a small plot of ancestral land. Now he has two spread over 52 acres.