Bora, fondly known as ‘elephant man’ or the 24X7 animal rescue helpline, leads the human-elephant conflict project.  He is also a member of Green Guard Nature Organisation, an Assam-based grassroots non-profit that believes in involving local communities in conservation.

1. In 1988, in the dead of the night, a hapless elephant calf insisted to a sleeping Binod Borah that it was about to fall into a neighbour’s well.

2.  The seven-year-old woke up with a start in the thatched hut he shared with his parents and elder brother in Assam’s Chapanalla village in Nagaon.

3. The next morning, young Borah’s dream did not bode quite well with whomever he narrated it to.

4. “Nobody paid attention to my story but I was relentless,” Borah remembers being very concerned about the elephant.

5. Five years later, Dulu became associated with GreenGuard Nature Organization (GGNO), a grassroots organisation in Nagaon established in 1994, that has emerged as an agency for wildlife conservation.

6. In the last three decades, he has managed to rescue over 2,500 animals including 3 elephant calves, 2 leopard cubs, 3 bear cubs, 6 slow lorises, 10 Chinese pangolins, more than 20 deer, several hares, monkeys, mongoose, geckos, flying squirrel, civets, over 600 snakes including 14 King Cobras, hundreds of turtles and hundreds of birds.

7. Dulu has been planting banana trees across an area of 200 bighas near Karbi Hills that would provide food to wild elephants in their natural habitat and mitigate the conflicts to a certain extent.

8. Dulu has been planting banana trees across an area of 200 bighas near Karbi Hills that would provide food to wild elephants in their natural habitat and mitigate the conflicts to a certain extent.

 “I had noticed wild birds, turtles and small mammals in the weekly market near my village, and they would eventually be sold as bushmeat. So, I’d keep coming up with ways to purchase them and set them free. Sometimes, I would even take money from my elder brothers without asking,” Dulu claims.