KAZIRANGA, Aug 10 - Forest staff and the officers always remain active, when called for duty inside the deep forests of Kaziranga.
An Assistant Conservator of Forest ( ACF) Ritupawan Bora of Kaziranga National Park jumped into a deep �nalla� on Saturday to save the life of a newly-recruited constable of the Special Task Force set up for protection of wildlife in Kaziranga.
According to sources, since the day an adult rhino was killed ( on August 7), the forest guards and officials including DFO Ramesh Gogoi and ACF Ritupawan Bora had moved inside the Kaziranga forest in search of poachers who had killed the rhino.
ACF Bora went on a speed boat along with the forest staff. They entered from Bagori range of Kaziranga National Park and moved towards river Brahmaputra and by Saturday morning, had reached parts of Kohora Central (Kaziranga) range. They were following the footprints of human beings, perhaps those of the poachers. At one point, the forest staff and officials reached the river bank and started walking again following the footprints. But, the footprints ended at the edge of Hanuman nalla, a stream which had strong water current. When the STF guard tried to cross the Hanuman nalla, he fell into it along with his service rifle and was almost on the verge of drowning. Without any second thoughts, ACF Bora who is also a good swimmer, jumped into the nalla and saved the young guard from drowning.
Foresters rescue colleagues: In a similar incident, when forest staff who were searching for poachers who had killed the rhino on August 7, tried to cross a river with the help of country boat, their boat capsized and they were swept away by the strong current of the river. A few forest guards who were on the river bank immediately jumped in and saved their colleagues from drowning. These kind of heroic acts indeed deserve due recognition.
