Parbati Barua, the first female mahout of India, has won the Padma Shri for 2024
By Shevlin Sebastian
On the night of January 25,
2024, Parbati Barua had switched on a news channel on the television at her
home in Guwahati. She felt her body tremble when the anchor announced she
had won the Padma Shri (Social Work) for her career as the first female mahout
in India.
A few minutes later, she got a
call from a central government official who confirmed the news. But her
neighbours did not come, because they knew she went to sleep at 8 p.m. And got
up at 4 a.m.
“My work has finally received
official recognition,” she says. “This was also a recognition of the enormous
amount of work mahouts put in. It is a 24/7 job. People will not understand
unless they see it first-hand. My heart is always with the mahouts.”
In 1989, Parbati had received
the ‘Global 500 – Roll of Honour’ award from the United Nations Environment
Programme for her work in the welfare and management of wild and captive
elephants. There was also a BBC documentary.
Parbati’s elder sister, the
legendary folk singer, Pratima Barua Pandey (1934-2002), had also won the Padma
Shri in 1991. She had a tie-up with the legendary Assamese singer Bhupen
Hazarika.
As Parbati drifted off to sleep,
a memory came to her mind.
When she was ten years old, one
day her mother Bina said, “Do you know when you saw an elephant for the first
time?”
As Parbati narrowed her eyes and
tried to remember, Bina said, “You will not be able to recall. When you were
one month and 17 days old, your father placed you on the back of an elephant.
You had a smile on your face. You fell in love with elephants instantly.”
Parbati belonged to the royal
family of Gauripur, in Dhubri district in Assam. The family lived near the
river Gadadhar. Her father, Prakritish Chandra Barua had a stable of 40
elephants at the back of the house. Because of Prakritish’s immense love for
elephants, Parbati also developed a similar affection. “Baba was my guru,” says
Parbati. “He taught me how to look after and care for elephants.”
Every day, Prakritish would go
to the stables. Parbati accompanied him. One day Prakritish told Parbati, “Give
them love. They will love you in return.” This simple statement remained etched
in Parbati’s mind.
Parbati has eight brothers and
sisters. But it was only she who has dedicated her life to looking after
elephants. After observing the work of mahouts for several years, she became
one in 1972. “The best way to learn is through practical experience,” she
says.
Because she is 70 years old,
Parbati has only one elephant, Lakhimala, with her. Lakhimala stays in the
village of Kalpani, around 123 kms from the capital, Guwahati.
As for the food she gives the
elephant, it includes banana leaves, green grass and branches of trees. Because
the village is near the jungle, it is not expensive, as everything is
available. “But in the town where natural materials are not easily available,
it can get expensive,” she says. Sometimes, when it is freezing, she gives
Lakhimala boiled rice and rum because it helps to keep the elephant warm.
Asked how elephants show love,
Parbati says, “It is through the eyes. And you get a feeling that they love
you. You can gauge it only when you spend time with them. It is a silent
language.”
Elephants have similar
characters like human beings. “Each has a unique personality,” says Parbati.
“There are introverted and extroverted elephants. There are leaders and
followers. Some are very social. Many are benevolent and kind-hearted. They
have enormous patience. Only when they reach the limit of their patience do
they get angry. They love children, be it human beings or any other animal like
tiger or deer. Elephants will never harm children.”
And they usually get along with
each other within the herd. “They are very co-operative,” says Parbati. Once in
a while, there is a quarrel. Then it can be a fight to the death between two
elephants. “Sometimes the fight can last for three days non-stop,” says
Parbati. “It is painful to watch. But it is wise not to interfere.”
Asked whether elephants are
better than human beings, Parbati says, “100 percent. Human beings can be so
cruel.”
Whenever elephants are sick,
injured or become rogue, the authorities in Bengal, Orissa and Assam call
Parbati. So she is on the road often. “This is my destiny,” she says.
Elephants become rogue for
various reasons. It is when human beings oppress them, or they get injured.
“There is no proper treatment inside the jungle,” says Parbati. “When the pain
becomes unbearable, they can get angry. They will attack people at that
moment.”
The forest department has no
option but to eliminate them. “They become like man-eating tigers,” says
Parbati.
Professor
Aloke Kumar, Professor of Communications at the Indian Institute of Management
in Kolkata, who has closely followed Parbati’s career, says, “In an incident in
Bengal's Medinipur district, a herd of over 50 elephants, went off course and
were wandering towards human habitation. When the authorities couldn't get the
situation under control, they turned to Parbati. With her team and four
elephants, she guided the tuskers back to the jungle.”
The good news, she says, is that
the elephant population has remained stable. According to the 2017 elephant
census, the nationwide population stands at 29,964. Karnataka has the highest
number, at 6395, while Parbati’s home state of Assam has 5719.
Asked about her most memorable
experience, Parbati says it was when she lassoed an elephant in the Kachugaon
forest for the first time. “I was only 14 years old,” she says. “I am the only
lady, not only in India, but perhaps in Asia, who has achieved this feat. Our
family later sold the elephant. Since it was over 50 years ago, I don’t know
whether it is alive or passed away.”
(An edited version was published in The Sunday Magazine, The New Indian Express, South India and Delhi)
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