Kamrup villager earns praise for handing over broken elephant tusk to Forest Dept
A resident of Gokhanihat village in Kamrup returned a broken elephant tusk found inside Maliata Reserve Forest, drawing appreciation from forest officer
Maniram Boro (left) with DD Boro
Amingaon, Jan 22: The people in the locality have appreciated the humble initiative of Maniram Boro (45), a resident of village Gokhanihat in Kamrup, who handed over a broken tusk of wild elephant to Dharani Dhar Boro, once a decorated forest officer of Assam Forest Department, on January 1.
Elaborating on the incident, Maniram Boro said, “Instead of going to work on the first day of the year, I went to Maliata RF to collect dry firewood.”
When he was about to leave the place after collecting the firewood, he discovered a broken tusk of wild elephant lying on ground.
“Seeing the tusk on the ground, I got scared. Instead of touching it, I contacted DD Boro, who is my relative, and told him about it,” Maniram said, adding: Boro emboldened me and asked me to bring it back to him.
Accordingly, he rushed to DD Boro’s house, leaving the bundle of firewood in the field.
Talking to this correspondent, DD Boro said, “Later, a team of forest personnel reached my home and Maniram handed over the tusk weighing about 250 gram to them. This is for the second time that such tusk was found inside the RF.
Earlier, in October, 2024, two wage earners – Bidya Boro and Nilkamal Boro – found such broken tusk inside the forest. Later, they handed over the tusk to Palashbari forest range office.”
Speaking highly of such an act of generosity, DD Boro said,” Such acts should be widely appreciated. No departmental initiative will bring lasting success if such great acts go unheeded and unrewarded,” the Assam Gaurav awardee remarked.
He also said that on the earlier occasion when Bidya Boro and Nilkamal Boro returned the broken tusk, they were also not rewarded.
It may be noted here that Maliata RF under East Kamrup Forest Division has become a transit camp for wild pachyderms since 2016. Tuskers usually uproot trees inside the jungle for fodder. In this process, they find their tusk smashed.