(IN): Caught in a TRAP : Elephant trappers (PHANDIs)

[Guest guest]

* The Times of India, Kolkata Sunday, September 13, 2009

 

Caught in a TRAP

 

 

Their art banned and livelihoods lost, phandis are a dying breed no one’s

willing to help

 

Naresh Mitra & Achintyarup Ray | TNN

 

 

Masses of dark cumulonimbus were rolling down the distant hills of

Arunachal like herds of wild elephants. The forests were resonating with the

dull and droning sound of cicadas. Eighty-five-year-old Bapuram Shaikia was

sobbing. Here, just at this spot inside the Dullung reserve forest, had once

stood his hut. The only place on earth he could call home. But they just

burnt it down, the forest department people. And the expert in the art of

capturing and taming elephants — once a man of strength and courage — was

helpless in the face of their might.

Not only Bapuram’s, hundreds of other huts were bulldozed and burnt down

to evict the jobless and homeless phandis from the forest land. “Now I have

no house of my own. I stay in a temple and my wife in a nearby house because

both of us can’t stay inside the mandir. Is this the day I lived for?”

Bapuram breaks into tears.

It has been almost three decades that ‘mela shikar’ and ‘garh shikar’

(the traditional arts of catching wild elephants) have been banned. But the

octogenarian cannot forget his days as ‘bar phandi’ (expert trapper). Ask

him, and the memories come gushing to his mind. The craggy face transforms

magically and the frail frame starts swaying as he hums:

Allah Allah bolo re bhai hai Allah Rasul, Allaher bine keho nai hai Allah

Rasul boro pandhi dharo re mai hai Allah Rasul bhal bhal dawai khelai re

bhai hai Allah Rasul…

This song was sung by ‘difu phandis’ (who tamed wild elephants) after the

animals were trapped, says Bapuram. “Those were the days,” he gushes. “Our

jatra (journey to the jungle) started on Bijoya Dashami. There used to be at

least 20 people under me. Our main tools were different kinds of jute ropes.

Each rope was prepared separately for different purposes. As a bar phandi,

my task was to lasso the elephant and fasten the noose around its neck. A

12-ply rope used to be prepared specially for this.”

His training began in the teenage days. “I started catching elephants as

a ‘jogali’ (helper) from the age of 16, and visited Myanmar once to trap and

train elephants,” says Bapuram.

Mela shikar used to be organised twice a year, after the Pujas and during

Bihu. Nearly 100 elephants were trapped and trained by Bapuram until a

crackdown after 1972 and a subsequent ban in the early ’80s, which cast a

shadow on the lives of more than 1,000 phandis, ghasis (fodder collectors)

and others associated with catching elephants in Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and

other parts of Assam.

Today, almost three decades later, many of them are living hand to mouth,

doing odd jobs and working as manual labourers. According to Sadou Asom Hati

Phando Sanmilan Union, an organisation working for the rehabilitation of the

jobless elephant trappers, the government has given employment to only 37

phandis since 1972.

Bapuram’s condition typifies the lives of phandis in this north-eastern

state. The octogenarian bar phandi doesn’t have a house to live in, or land

to cultivate. Some phandis did manage to build their own house, but most do

not own any land. Because, when around 1,000 jobless phandi families settled

in 13 villages on the fringes of Dullung forest, about 30 km from Gogamukh

near the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border, their houses were burnt during an

eviction drive by the forest department. Many were beaten up. That was in

2006. The villages have now been completely taken over by the jungle.

“We have been demanding rehabilitation because their eviction from

Dullung left them without any land,” says phandi union assistant secretary

Prafulla Nath. “The forest department drive was a big blow to the life and

security of phandis. The boundary dispute between Assam and Arunachal has

made things worse. Villagers in Arunachal, too, played an active role in

evicting families.”

The government has taken some steps to rehabilitate phandis. Around 170 of

them have been provided land and money in Lakhimpur district. “But that is

too little and, of course, too late,” Nath says. But Lakhimpur deputy

commissioner Jayant Narlikar claims: “We are serious about the problems

faced by phandis. The administration is working on rehabilitating them. The

process is on.” But the Assam forest department in non-committal. “From the

point of social responsibility, rehabilitation of phandis has to be done.

But it’s a very complex issue. We understand the problems of the phandis,

but cannot decide on anything,” said principal chief conservator of forest

(wildlife) Suresh Chand.

Assam recently proposed to the Centre to legalise mela shikar again. If

the proposal is accepted, the phandis can get a new lease of life, feels

elephant expert Parbati Barua, who has trapped a few elephants herself.

But not everybody is in favour of reviving mela shikar or rehabilitating

phandis. “Why is the issue of rehabilitation coming up? Trapping wild

elephants can never be justified. Besides, elephant trapping is a seasonal

affair, so how did phandis survive the rest of the year? They used to

cultivate land. So, the question of rehabilitation doesn’t arise at all,”

says Kushal K Sarma, veterinarian and elephant expert. (With inputs from

Caesar Mandal )

 

GARH SHIKAR

 

There are two variations of Khedda, or garh shikar, practised in Assam —

pung garh and dandi garh. In the former, a big enclosure (stockade) of stout

wooden poles is erected at a convenient place near a natural salt-lick. As

soon as a herd starts its journey from the salt-lick, it is driven by

shikaris and “beaters” towards the stockade using crackers and other

instruments that make noise. As soon as the herd enters the stockade, its

gate is slammed shut. In dandi garh, a stockade is made on the migratory

route of the elephants.

 

MELA SHIKAR

 

It’s the form of capturing elephants without a stockade. Essentially, the

method involves chasing wild elephants by the trained ones (koonkies) and

noosing them. It’s more popular in the North-East than Khedda. A variation

of mela shikar is known as ‘Gazali Shikar’. Gazali refers to the young

shoots of grasses that sprout during pre-monsoon showers in May-June.

Elephants are very fond of gazali and are attracted towards the grassy

patches, where mela shikaris are ready with their bait.

 

 

EXPERTSPEAK

 

PARBATI BARUA

‘Mela shikar must be revived’

 

If nothing is done now, the art of mela shikar is sure to die soon

because there won’t be any expert phandi around to teach his art to the new

generation,” rues expert phandi Parbati Barua.

For Parbati, an ardent advocate for reviving mela shikar, it will be the

most painful thing to see the art die. She learnt mela shikar at the age of

14 from her father, Prakritish Chandra Barua, or Lalji, a master

elephant-catcher and a scion of the Gauripur royal family. Growing up with

elephants, mahouts and phandis led to an emotional attachment with mela

shikar.

She suggests a relaxation of the ban and allowing restricted capture of

elephants. Doing this, she feels, will not only help curb the man-elephant

conflict across Assam, but also keep the art alive.

On Assam environment and forest minister Rockybul Hussain’s recent

request to New Delhi to revive mela shikar, Parbati says: “I do not know

whether it will be allowed once again. But I do not see any harm if mela

shikar is occasionally allowed. That will provide livelihood to hundreds of

phandis and keep the man-elephant conflict in control.”

If mela shikar is reintroduced, it should be conducted under the strict

vigilance of an expert group, Barua says.

 

*

*Dhritikanta Lahiri Chowdhury

 

*‘No harm to elephants’

 

 

Renowned elephant expert Dhritikanta Lahiri Chowdhury hails Assam’s

proposal to reintroduce mela shikar. “The Project Elephant Committee already

has a resolution on mela shikar. That is, the technique of mela shikar can

be used, but only to scare away wild herds. For reducing the number of

elephants, however, tranquilisation is a much better and effective option,”

he says.

He adds: “Mela shikar is a very old technique. We find the oldest

instance of this art in the records of Alexander the Great’s campaigns in

the Orient. At that time, even he had captured elephants. It was then

considered a sport. There’s a belief mela shikar harms elephants. That’s not

true.”

The phandis and their art can be used to scare away wild herds, feels the

elephant expert. The animals fear the commotion during mela shikar and

simply start running away once they smell a kunki. So, without even touching

a single animal, one can chase them away. “I have seen phandis in action,

but never tried to be on an elephant with a phandi. It’s difficult to sit on

the bare back of an elephant when it’s running through a dense jungle,” he

says.

 

pix:1.Fandis 2.Bapuram breaks into tears at Dullung forest, where he once

stayed I have no house of my own. I stay in a temple and my wife in a nearby

house because both of us can’t stay inside the mandir. Is this the day I

lived for? -*Bapuram Shaikia | BAR PHANDI * 3.The Gogamukh temple where

Bapuram stays now 4.Wife and child of ‘sarkari phandi’ Kokrel

Baglari 5.*TRAPPERS’

ALBUM *

 

 

 

 

--

http://www.stopelephantpolo.com

http://www.freewebs.com/azamsiddiqui

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

I have passed this news item to several elephant experts and requested their

comments.

 

Of particular intrigue is this comment by Parbati Baruah : " [if] mela

shikar is occasionally allowed[,] [t]hat will provide livelihood to hundreds

of

phandis and keep the man-elephant conflict in control.”

 

My question is how will capture of elephants help the man elephant conflict

to be controlled?

 

Also, how many conflict elephants have been captured and provided an

alternative suitable life in Assam? In conflict situations, if elephant

babies are trapped, they just die in captivity, because it is extremely

difficult to replicate the exact composition of elephant milk(If the baby is

still suckling). To my knowledge, the only person in the world who has

successfully done this is Daphne Sheldrick in Kenya. I am not aware of

anyone who has done this in India.

 

I have seen captive elephants in Assam very closely and have also interacted

with them in Kaziranga. They are not in the best of conditions. If there is

a proposition to capture more elephants, one would be justified in asking

how the Assam government intends to take care of them.

 

 

On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 2:50 PM, azam24x7 <azam24x7 wrote:

 

> * The Times of India, Kolkata Sunday, September 13, 2009

>

> Caught in a TRAP

>

>

> Their art banned and livelihoods lost, phandis are a dying breed no one’s

> willing to help

>

> Naresh Mitra & Achintyarup Ray | TNN

>

>

> Masses of dark cumulonimbus were rolling down the distant hills of

> Arunachal like herds of wild elephants. The forests were resonating with

> the

> dull and droning sound of cicadas. Eighty-five-year-old Bapuram Shaikia was

> sobbing. Here, just at this spot inside the Dullung reserve forest, had

> once

> stood his hut. The only place on earth he could call home. But they just

> burnt it down, the forest department people. And the expert in the art of

> capturing and taming elephants — once a man of strength and courage — was

> helpless in the face of their might.

> Not only Bapuram’s, hundreds of other huts were bulldozed and burnt down

> to evict the jobless and homeless phandis from the forest land. “Now I have

> no house of my own. I stay in a temple and my wife in a nearby house

> because

> both of us can’t stay inside the mandir. Is this the day I lived for?”

> Bapuram breaks into tears.

> It has been almost three decades that ‘mela shikar’ and ‘garh shikar’

> (the traditional arts of catching wild elephants) have been banned. But the

> octogenarian cannot forget his days as ‘bar phandi’ (expert trapper). Ask

> him, and the memories come gushing to his mind. The craggy face transforms

> magically and the frail frame starts swaying as he hums:

> Allah Allah bolo re bhai hai Allah Rasul, Allaher bine keho nai hai Allah

> Rasul boro pandhi dharo re mai hai Allah Rasul bhal bhal dawai khelai re

> bhai hai Allah Rasul…

> This song was sung by ‘difu phandis’ (who tamed wild elephants) after the

> animals were trapped, says Bapuram. “Those were the days,” he gushes. “Our

> jatra (journey to the jungle) started on Bijoya Dashami. There used to be

> at

> least 20 people under me. Our main tools were different kinds of jute

> ropes.

> Each rope was prepared separately for different purposes. As a bar phandi,

> my task was to lasso the elephant and fasten the noose around its neck. A

> 12-ply rope used to be prepared specially for this.”

> His training began in the teenage days. “I started catching elephants as

> a ‘jogali’ (helper) from the age of 16, and visited Myanmar once to trap

> and

> train elephants,” says Bapuram.

> Mela shikar used to be organised twice a year, after the Pujas and during

> Bihu. Nearly 100 elephants were trapped and trained by Bapuram until a

> crackdown after 1972 and a subsequent ban in the early ’80s, which cast a

> shadow on the lives of more than 1,000 phandis, ghasis (fodder collectors)

> and others associated with catching elephants in Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and

> other parts of Assam.

> Today, almost three decades later, many of them are living hand to mouth,

> doing odd jobs and working as manual labourers. According to Sadou Asom

> Hati

> Phando Sanmilan Union, an organisation working for the rehabilitation of

> the

> jobless elephant trappers, the government has given employment to only 37

> phandis since 1972.

> Bapuram’s condition typifies the lives of phandis in this north-eastern

> state. The octogenarian bar phandi doesn’t have a house to live in, or land

> to cultivate. Some phandis did manage to build their own house, but most do

> not own any land. Because, when around 1,000 jobless phandi families

> settled

> in 13 villages on the fringes of Dullung forest, about 30 km from Gogamukh

> near the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border, their houses were burnt during an

> eviction drive by the forest department. Many were beaten up. That was in

> 2006. The villages have now been completely taken over by the jungle.

> “We have been demanding rehabilitation because their eviction from

> Dullung left them without any land,” says phandi union assistant secretary

> Prafulla Nath. “The forest department drive was a big blow to the life and

> security of phandis. The boundary dispute between Assam and Arunachal has

> made things worse. Villagers in Arunachal, too, played an active role in

> evicting families.”

> The government has taken some steps to rehabilitate phandis. Around 170 of

> them have been provided land and money in Lakhimpur district. “But that is

> too little and, of course, too late,” Nath says. But Lakhimpur deputy

> commissioner Jayant Narlikar claims: “We are serious about the problems

> faced by phandis. The administration is working on rehabilitating them. The

> process is on.” But the Assam forest department in non-committal. “From the

> point of social responsibility, rehabilitation of phandis has to be done.

> But it’s a very complex issue. We understand the problems of the phandis,

> but cannot decide on anything,” said principal chief conservator of forest

> (wildlife) Suresh Chand.

> Assam recently proposed to the Centre to legalise mela shikar again. If

> the proposal is accepted, the phandis can get a new lease of life, feels

> elephant expert Parbati Barua, who has trapped a few elephants herself.

> But not everybody is in favour of reviving mela shikar or rehabilitating

> phandis. “Why is the issue of rehabilitation coming up? Trapping wild

> elephants can never be justified. Besides, elephant trapping is a seasonal

> affair, so how did phandis survive the rest of the year? They used to

> cultivate land. So, the question of rehabilitation doesn’t arise at all,”

> says Kushal K Sarma, veterinarian and elephant expert. (With inputs from

> Caesar Mandal )

>

> GARH SHIKAR

>

> There are two variations of Khedda, or garh shikar, practised in Assam —

> pung garh and dandi garh. In the former, a big enclosure (stockade) of

> stout

> wooden poles is erected at a convenient place near a natural salt-lick. As

> soon as a herd starts its journey from the salt-lick, it is driven by

> shikaris and “beaters” towards the stockade using crackers and other

> instruments that make noise. As soon as the herd enters the stockade, its

> gate is slammed shut. In dandi garh, a stockade is made on the migratory

> route of the elephants.

>

> MELA SHIKAR

>

> It’s the form of capturing elephants without a stockade. Essentially, the

> method involves chasing wild elephants by the trained ones (koonkies) and

> noosing them. It’s more popular in the North-East than Khedda. A variation

> of mela shikar is known as ‘Gazali Shikar’. Gazali refers to the young

> shoots of grasses that sprout during pre-monsoon showers in May-June.

> Elephants are very fond of gazali and are attracted towards the grassy

> patches, where mela shikaris are ready with their bait.

>

>

> EXPERTSPEAK

>

> PARBATI BARUA

> ‘Mela shikar must be revived’

>

> If nothing is done now, the art of mela shikar is sure to die soon

> because there won’t be any expert phandi around to teach his art to the new

> generation,” rues expert phandi Parbati Barua.

> For Parbati, an ardent advocate for reviving mela shikar, it will be the

> most painful thing to see the art die. She learnt mela shikar at the age of

> 14 from her father, Prakritish Chandra Barua, or Lalji, a master

> elephant-catcher and a scion of the Gauripur royal family. Growing up with

> elephants, mahouts and phandis led to an emotional attachment with mela

> shikar.

> She suggests a relaxation of the ban and allowing restricted capture of

> elephants. Doing this, she feels, will not only help curb the man-elephant

> conflict across Assam, but also keep the art alive.

> On Assam environment and forest minister Rockybul Hussain’s recent

> request to New Delhi to revive mela shikar, Parbati says: “I do not know

> whether it will be allowed once again. But I do not see any harm if mela

> shikar is occasionally allowed. That will provide livelihood to hundreds of

> phandis and keep the man-elephant conflict in control.”

> If mela shikar is reintroduced, it should be conducted under the strict

> vigilance of an expert group, Barua says.

>

> *

> *Dhritikanta Lahiri Chowdhury

>

> *‘No harm to elephants’

>

>

> Renowned elephant expert Dhritikanta Lahiri Chowdhury hails Assam’s

> proposal to reintroduce mela shikar. “The Project Elephant Committee

> already

> has a resolution on mela shikar. That is, the technique of mela shikar can

> be used, but only to scare away wild herds. For reducing the number of

> elephants, however, tranquilisation is a much better and effective option,”

> he says.

> He adds: “Mela shikar is a very old technique. We find the oldest

> instance of this art in the records of Alexander the Great’s campaigns in

> the Orient. At that time, even he had captured elephants. It was then

> considered a sport. There’s a belief mela shikar harms elephants. That’s

> not

> true.”

> The phandis and their art can be used to scare away wild herds, feels the

> elephant expert. The animals fear the commotion during mela shikar and

> simply start running away once they smell a kunki. So, without even

> touching

> a single animal, one can chase them away. “I have seen phandis in action,

> but never tried to be on an elephant with a phandi. It’s difficult to sit

> on

> the bare back of an elephant when it’s running through a dense jungle,” he

> says.

>

> pix:1.Fandis 2.Bapuram breaks into tears at Dullung forest, where he once

> stayed I have no house of my own. I stay in a temple and my wife in a

> nearby

> house because both of us can’t stay inside the mandir. Is this the day I

> lived for? -*Bapuram Shaikia | BAR PHANDI * 3.The Gogamukh temple where

> Bapuram stays now 4.Wife and child of ‘sarkari phandi’ Kokrel

> Baglari 5.*TRAPPERS’

> ALBUM *

>

>

>

>

> --

> http://www.stopelephantpolo.com

> http://www.freewebs.com/azamsiddiqui

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

This is just rubbish.

The SOS appeal from the state government to revive the elephant capture

citing livelihood concerns for the elephant keepers and need for captive

elephants as employees of the state is approved by the Centre is invalid.

 

Yes, there must be a crisis in the lives of those who were engaged in such

activities, but then that is the same for the Bear kalandars (charmers),

Snake Charmers and the Circus Industry.

 

The State and more so the Forest Ministry of the State who is here to make

life better for the environment and wildlife should consider it a priority

and take up the matters of rehabilitation of the concerned people whose

livelihood has come to a stand still following this BAN.

 

Ms. Parbati Barua is an alleged tainted elephant catcher and this has been

exposed widely in the news media and documentary films.

Also in the past there have been many investigations from various states of

mainland India where the cases of captive elephant smuggling has surfaced

pointing a finger at the state of Assam.

I myself have exposed one such racket where on a tip off Railway Police

busted the smuggling of Four adult elephants inside a train parcel wagon.

All bound for Sonepur Mela of Bihar from where they find ways into nepal, or

Indian industries of Circus, Temple, the Horrible Heat Tourism of Rajasthan

etc.

 

I think this move by the state to give shape to a so called CRISIS with the

assistance of the news media should be slammed hard by senior animal people

so that it does not turn into a reality.

 

 

Azam

 

 

On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 11:01 AM, <

journalistandanimals wrote:

 

> I have passed this news item to several elephant experts and requested

> their

> comments.

>

> Of particular intrigue is this comment by Parbati Baruah : " [if] mela

> shikar is occasionally allowed[,] [t]hat will provide livelihood to

> hundreds

> of

> phandis and keep the man-elephant conflict in control.”

>

> My question is how will capture of elephants help the man elephant conflict

> to be controlled?

>

> Also, how many conflict elephants have been captured and provided an

> alternative suitable life in Assam? In conflict situations, if elephant

> babies are trapped, they just die in captivity, because it is extremely

> difficult to replicate the exact composition of elephant milk(If the baby

> is

> still suckling). To my knowledge, the only person in the world who has

> successfully done this is Daphne Sheldrick in Kenya. I am not aware of

> anyone who has done this in India.

>

> I have seen captive elephants in Assam very closely and have also

> interacted

> with them in Kaziranga. They are not in the best of conditions. If there is

> a proposition to capture more elephants, one would be justified in asking

> how the Assam government intends to take care of them.

>

>

> On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 2:50 PM, azam24x7 <azam24x7 wrote:

>

> > * The Times of India, Kolkata Sunday, September 13, 2009

> >

> > Caught in a TRAP

> >

> >

> > Their art banned and livelihoods lost, phandis are a dying breed no one’s

> > willing to help

> >

> > Naresh Mitra & Achintyarup Ray | TNN

> >

> >

> > Masses of dark cumulonimbus were rolling down the distant hills of

> > Arunachal like herds of wild elephants. The forests were resonating with

> > the

> > dull and droning sound of cicadas. Eighty-five-year-old Bapuram Shaikia

> was

> > sobbing. Here, just at this spot inside the Dullung reserve forest, had

> > once

> > stood his hut. The only place on earth he could call home. But they just

> > burnt it down, the forest department people. And the expert in the art of

> > capturing and taming elephants — once a man of strength and courage — was

> > helpless in the face of their might.

> > Not only Bapuram’s, hundreds of other huts were bulldozed and burnt

> down

> > to evict the jobless and homeless phandis from the forest land. “Now I

> have

> > no house of my own. I stay in a temple and my wife in a nearby house

> > because

> > both of us can’t stay inside the mandir. Is this the day I lived for?”

> > Bapuram breaks into tears.

> > It has been almost three decades that ‘mela shikar’ and ‘garh shikar’

> > (the traditional arts of catching wild elephants) have been banned. But

> the

> > octogenarian cannot forget his days as ‘bar phandi’ (expert trapper). Ask

> > him, and the memories come gushing to his mind. The craggy face

> transforms

> > magically and the frail frame starts swaying as he hums:

> > Allah Allah bolo re bhai hai Allah Rasul, Allaher bine keho nai hai Allah

> > Rasul boro pandhi dharo re mai hai Allah Rasul bhal bhal dawai khelai re

> > bhai hai Allah Rasul…

> > This song was sung by ‘difu phandis’ (who tamed wild elephants) after the

> > animals were trapped, says Bapuram. “Those were the days,” he gushes.

> “Our

> > jatra (journey to the jungle) started on Bijoya Dashami. There used to be

> > at

> > least 20 people under me. Our main tools were different kinds of jute

> > ropes.

> > Each rope was prepared separately for different purposes. As a bar

> phandi,

> > my task was to lasso the elephant and fasten the noose around its neck. A

> > 12-ply rope used to be prepared specially for this.”

> > His training began in the teenage days. “I started catching elephants

> as

> > a ‘jogali’ (helper) from the age of 16, and visited Myanmar once to trap

> > and

> > train elephants,” says Bapuram.

> > Mela shikar used to be organised twice a year, after the Pujas and

> during

> > Bihu. Nearly 100 elephants were trapped and trained by Bapuram until a

> > crackdown after 1972 and a subsequent ban in the early ’80s, which cast a

> > shadow on the lives of more than 1,000 phandis, ghasis (fodder

> collectors)

> > and others associated with catching elephants in Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and

> > other parts of Assam.

> > Today, almost three decades later, many of them are living hand to

> mouth,

> > doing odd jobs and working as manual labourers. According to Sadou Asom

> > Hati

> > Phando Sanmilan Union, an organisation working for the rehabilitation of

> > the

> > jobless elephant trappers, the government has given employment to only 37

> > phandis since 1972.

> > Bapuram’s condition typifies the lives of phandis in this north-eastern

> > state. The octogenarian bar phandi doesn’t have a house to live in, or

> land

> > to cultivate. Some phandis did manage to build their own house, but most

> do

> > not own any land. Because, when around 1,000 jobless phandi families

> > settled

> > in 13 villages on the fringes of Dullung forest, about 30 km from

> Gogamukh

> > near the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border, their houses were burnt during

> an

> > eviction drive by the forest department. Many were beaten up. That was in

> > 2006. The villages have now been completely taken over by the jungle.

> > “We have been demanding rehabilitation because their eviction from

> > Dullung left them without any land,” says phandi union assistant

> secretary

> > Prafulla Nath. “The forest department drive was a big blow to the life

> and

> > security of phandis. The boundary dispute between Assam and Arunachal has

> > made things worse. Villagers in Arunachal, too, played an active role in

> > evicting families.”

> > The government has taken some steps to rehabilitate phandis. Around 170

> of

> > them have been provided land and money in Lakhimpur district. “But that

> is

> > too little and, of course, too late,” Nath says. But Lakhimpur deputy

> > commissioner Jayant Narlikar claims: “We are serious about the problems

> > faced by phandis. The administration is working on rehabilitating them.

> The

> > process is on.” But the Assam forest department in non-committal. “From

> the

> > point of social responsibility, rehabilitation of phandis has to be done.

> > But it’s a very complex issue. We understand the problems of the phandis,

> > but cannot decide on anything,” said principal chief conservator of

> forest

> > (wildlife) Suresh Chand.

> > Assam recently proposed to the Centre to legalise mela shikar again. If

> > the proposal is accepted, the phandis can get a new lease of life, feels

> > elephant expert Parbati Barua, who has trapped a few elephants herself.

> > But not everybody is in favour of reviving mela shikar or

> rehabilitating

> > phandis. “Why is the issue of rehabilitation coming up? Trapping wild

> > elephants can never be justified. Besides, elephant trapping is a

> seasonal

> > affair, so how did phandis survive the rest of the year? They used to

> > cultivate land. So, the question of rehabilitation doesn’t arise at all,”

> > says Kushal K Sarma, veterinarian and elephant expert. (With inputs from

> > Caesar Mandal )

> >

> > GARH SHIKAR

> >

> > There are two variations of Khedda, or garh shikar, practised in Assam —

> > pung garh and dandi garh. In the former, a big enclosure (stockade) of

> > stout

> > wooden poles is erected at a convenient place near a natural salt-lick.

> As

> > soon as a herd starts its journey from the salt-lick, it is driven by

> > shikaris and “beaters” towards the stockade using crackers and other

> > instruments that make noise. As soon as the herd enters the stockade, its

> > gate is slammed shut. In dandi garh, a stockade is made on the migratory

> > route of the elephants.

> >

> > MELA SHIKAR

> >

> > It’s the form of capturing elephants without a stockade. Essentially, the

> > method involves chasing wild elephants by the trained ones (koonkies) and

> > noosing them. It’s more popular in the North-East than Khedda. A

> variation

> > of mela shikar is known as ‘Gazali Shikar’. Gazali refers to the young

> > shoots of grasses that sprout during pre-monsoon showers in May-June.

> > Elephants are very fond of gazali and are attracted towards the grassy

> > patches, where mela shikaris are ready with their bait.

> >

> >

> > EXPERTSPEAK

> >

> > PARBATI BARUA

> > ‘Mela shikar must be revived’

> >

> > If nothing is done now, the art of mela shikar is sure to die soon

> > because there won’t be any expert phandi around to teach his art to the

> new

> > generation,” rues expert phandi Parbati Barua.

> > For Parbati, an ardent advocate for reviving mela shikar, it will be

> the

> > most painful thing to see the art die. She learnt mela shikar at the age

> of

> > 14 from her father, Prakritish Chandra Barua, or Lalji, a master

> > elephant-catcher and a scion of the Gauripur royal family. Growing up

> with

> > elephants, mahouts and phandis led to an emotional attachment with mela

> > shikar.

> > She suggests a relaxation of the ban and allowing restricted capture of

> > elephants. Doing this, she feels, will not only help curb the

> man-elephant

> > conflict across Assam, but also keep the art alive.

> > On Assam environment and forest minister Rockybul Hussain’s recent

> > request to New Delhi to revive mela shikar, Parbati says: “I do not know

> > whether it will be allowed once again. But I do not see any harm if mela

> > shikar is occasionally allowed. That will provide livelihood to hundreds

> of

> > phandis and keep the man-elephant conflict in control.”

> > If mela shikar is reintroduced, it should be conducted under the strict

> > vigilance of an expert group, Barua says.

> >

> > *

> > *Dhritikanta Lahiri Chowdhury

> >

> > *‘No harm to elephants’

> >

> >

> > Renowned elephant expert Dhritikanta Lahiri Chowdhury hails Assam’s

> > proposal to reintroduce mela shikar. “The Project Elephant Committee

> > already

> > has a resolution on mela shikar. That is, the technique of mela shikar

> can

> > be used, but only to scare away wild herds. For reducing the number of

> > elephants, however, tranquilisation is a much better and effective

> option,”

> > he says.

> > He adds: “Mela shikar is a very old technique. We find the oldest

> > instance of this art in the records of Alexander the Great’s campaigns in

> > the Orient. At that time, even he had captured elephants. It was then

> > considered a sport. There’s a belief mela shikar harms elephants. That’s

> > not

> > true.”

> > The phandis and their art can be used to scare away wild herds, feels

> the

> > elephant expert. The animals fear the commotion during mela shikar and

> > simply start running away once they smell a kunki. So, without even

> > touching

> > a single animal, one can chase them away. “I have seen phandis in action,

> > but never tried to be on an elephant with a phandi. It’s difficult to sit

> > on

> > the bare back of an elephant when it’s running through a dense jungle,”

> he

> > says.

> >

> > pix:1.Fandis 2.Bapuram breaks into tears at Dullung forest, where he

> once

> > stayed I have no house of my own. I stay in a temple and my wife in a

> > nearby

> > house because both of us can’t stay inside the mandir. Is this the day I

> > lived for? -*Bapuram Shaikia | BAR PHANDI * 3.The Gogamukh temple where

> > Bapuram stays now 4.Wife and child of ‘sarkari phandi’ Kokrel

> > Baglari 5.*TRAPPERS’

> > ALBUM *

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > --

> > http://www.stopelephantpolo.com

> > http://www.freewebs.com/azamsiddiqui

> >

> >

> >