Wild, wild vet
Dr Phulmoni Gogoi belongs to a rare species of doctors — she tends to wildlife in the dense jungles of Assam.
Teresa Rehman
The passion in her eyes was unmistakable as she sat in the incubation room, dotingly nursing a wreathed hornbill that had fallen from its nest due to heavy rain and broken a wing. But she was fighting a losing battle. Despite the necessary care and medication, she could not save the bird, which succumbed to its injuries.
Any such casualty is agonising for Phulmoni Gogoi, 29, one of the few women who are wildlife vets in India. Phulmoni works at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), run by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), in Borjuri village near Assam's Kaziranga National Park.
The CWRC, set up in 2002, is the country's first rescue and rehabilitation centre near a protected area and caters to wildlife emergencies occurring out of natural or anthropogenic causes. The veterinary infrastructure here includes an examination clinic, surgery theatre and an evolving preliminary disease investigation laboratory. It also has spacious shelters for birds, reptiles, ungulates and primates, enclosures for big cats, and nurseries for mega-herbivores.
Veterinary surgeon Phulmoni treats all species of animals in distress — from a rare black panther or an endangered Hoolock Gibbon to a rhino calf or captive elephant.
She owes her love for animals to a childhood spent in the lap of nature at Roing, Arunachal Pradesh. As a little girl, she often went to the forest to see wild birds and, sometimes, monkeys and elephants. “I used to relish the early-morning sounds made by the gibbons as they jumped and played around the forest. I had always loved this natural music. I was not very sure whether I loved wild animals during my childhood, but I always loved dogs, cows and the poultry birds raised by my parents. Although my mother never allowed us to keep dogs as pets, we raised many batches of ducklings,” she says with childlike ardour.
Later she chose to study Veterinary Science, and her husband, also a vet, guided her towards the unconventional career of a wildlife vet. Her parents, however, were initially appalled. “It was very tough for my parents to allow me to stay in the forest and work alone as a lady vet,” she says.
But there has been no looking back. Phulmoni is thoroughly enjoying her three-year tenure at the CWRC. “We provide treatment and care to all the displaced, injured, sick animals and try to release them back into the wild,” she says. While she loves all animals, elephants and bears are her favourite. “Once I went to rescue an abandoned rhino calf and we were chased by many rhinos. It made me think about how lonely a wild animal would feel near a human habitat if it sensed a threat to its life,” she says.
At times she tends to abandoned rhinos and elephant calves. “First-time mothers, who don't have the experience of calving, are often seen to abandon their young ones. We have to deal with the traumatised young animal, whose stress level increases because of the separation from its mother.”
Phulmoni and her team bottle-feed the calf with skimmed milk fortified with vitamin, carbohydrate and calcium supplements. According to the rehabilitation protocol, when hand-raising a calf aged below three months, the caregiver has to keep it company constantly, even at night.
“Being a surrogate mother to a rhino calf is easier as they adapt easily. But as elephants are social animals, an elephant calf is more sensitive. Often the keeper sleeps on a shed above the calf and keeps a blanket hanging.” The calf is comforted when it feels the blanket with its trunk and believes it to be its mother, she explains.
Phulmoni's happiest moment is when an animal or bird is released back into its home in the wild. She finds birds the most sensitive among all creatures. “Most of them are very expressive, even through their anatomical structure. It is very tough, almost impossible, to heal traumatised birds after they lose the potential to survive in the wild. My work at the CWRC has helped me develop a keen interest in avian surgery and I am looking forward to a good opportunity to learn more about Aves,” she says.
She has never felt that being a woman could be a deterrent in her unusual profession. However, she concedes that it may not be easy to live with animals in the wild — it would depend on individual interest and passion.
“I have met many women from countries like Spain, Germany, England, France, Portugal and the US who come to work at the CWRC. I don't see any reason why Indian girls can't work in this sector. It all depends on one's interest and love towards animals,” she says. In fact, she has met another enthusiastic woman vet, Korobi Boro, at the Manickdoh Leopard Rescue Centre in Pune, who is an expert in treating small carnivores.
Of course, there are occupational hazards such as attacks by animals, or zoonosis (a deadly disease transmitted from animals to humans) during rescue. Phulmoni also has to constantly update herself with specialised training methods. She has attended necropsy training in crocodiles at Chennai's Crocodile Bank, and workshops on rhino translocation and emerging zoonotic diseases.
She is experienced in handling both small and large carnivores. “It's not so difficult to hand-raise carnivores. But conflict cases are difficult and require long-term treatment in captivity. For dressing external injuries, we place the animals in a squeeze cage and roll the cage to make it smaller to prevent the animal from moving its limbs,” she says.
In spite of working through sleepless nights, especially during the monsoons when casualty rates are high, Phulmoni takes pleasure in her work. She never switches off her mobile phone and is ready for any emergency.
A committed vet, she stands by the creatures of the wild in their hour of need.
© Women's Feature Service
Friday, October 1, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
The Akhil Gogoi Factor
By Teresa Rehman
------Overnight, an average looking man with disheveled hair and beard, dressed austerely in an unironed shirt and trousers and a pair of chappals has become a household name in the murky landscape of Northeast India – a region often in the news for violence and bloodshed. Assam’s farmer rights activist Akhil Gogoi had an almost cinematic ingress into the public eye. His recent bare-knuckled tirade against alleged corruption by a heavyweight Congress leader has turned him into a dare-devil whistleblower against deep-rooted corruption in the political circles.
Gogoi became a readymade saleable package, more of a phenomenon that local media could not stop shrieking about. As soon as he steps out from a public meeting he is swallowed by a group of zealous mediapersons. The unassuming man is now being featured in blogs and youtube. His name has almost become a euphemism for ‘someone who fights against corruption’. Gogoi seems to have divined a mammoth common nerve in the society: the empowering potency of being shown you can choose otherwise and is the basis for the making of ‘the Akhil Gogoi factor’.
His decision to wage a war against corruption has triggered animated political, civil society and media debate. His diatribe has uncorked a dormant emotion in society and now its common to hear disgruntled people say, “Let’s put Akhil Gogoi on the trail” or “Only Akhil Gogoi can do something”.
A facebook group titled “Supporting Akhil Gogoi” in May 2010 had garnered as many as 1550 members. Aryama Dutta Saikia, who initiated the facebook group rues, “Our Supporting Akhil Gogoi page on Facebook has been temporarily blocked. It’s surprising because one needs more than 100 "reports" for an FB page to be blocked.”
To challenge corruption in a system where it is already widespread and deep-entrenched may appear futile. Gogoi seems to have filled a vacuum which the younger generation in Assam like Saikia needs to be filled. Saikia rues, “For years, we have been complaining about corruption and saying "Why doesn't someone do something?" We waited and waited and waited. But, that miraculous "someone" did not come to our rescue. In fact, every time a common man such as a Manjunath or a Satyendra Dubey emerges, the opposing forces drown his voice. It is unrealistic and unfair to expect one Akhil Gogoi to eradicate corruption in Assam.”
The group led by Saikia have also been organizing candle-light ‘anti-corruption’ vigils in different parts of the state as well as in Delhi. “Most of us secretly harbor fantasies of being a hero, exterminating corruption and making a difference in the society. Well, in Assam, Akhil Gogoi and his organization, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), are doing exactly this,” says Saikia.
Riding high on his huge popularity, Gogoi who was born into a cultivator’s family is now furiously presiding over farmer’s meetings all over the state. The peasant leader called upon the public to be alert against misuse of public fund by public servants and racketeers who pilferage funds meant for social welfare. He was also honoured with the second Manjunath Shanmugam Integrity Award in 2008 for his fight against corruption.
He also received the National RTI Awards in 2010 by the Public Cause Research Foundation (PCRF) for his for his role in exposing corruption in various schemes like the Indira Awas Yojana and the Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana. He is credited to taking RTI to the masses and holding the government accountable for its actions.
Gogoi has been working relentlessly for the cause of farmers in Assam since 2002 as the general secretary of the KMSS. KMSS is now a part of the National Alliance of Peoples Movement led by activist Medha Patkar and enjoys huge popularity in rural areas of Assam. In fact, Patkar joined him at a huge farmer’s rally in the heart of Guwahati city demanding an immediate halt to mega river-dam projects in Arunachal Pradesh and other northeastern States.
But Gogoi is more importantly credited to ushering in a modern-day nascent farmer’s movement in the state. History is strewn with tales of peasant’s movements and how the ruling class tried to throttle them. Assam too, had witnessed the Peasants’ Revolution of Sarukshetri in the erstwhile Barpeta subdivision of Kamrup district where ‘Raijmelah’ or the protest meeting was held in January 1894. The triggering factor for this movement was the proposed resettlement of land and abnormal hike in the land revenue. The Raijmel is a significant occurrence as it stirred the movement against the British rule in the early 20th century. The British rulers then tried to ruthlessly crush the movement in all possible ways.
Gogoi too had to face the wrath of the state – he has been from time to time branded ‘Maoist’, a ‘land-grabber’ and an ‘absconder’ by the state. With rumours of Gogoi having a threat to his life, the state government took no chances and gave him security cover in the form of a lone security guard. This is interesting in the light of the fact that the Centre is contemplating enacting the Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of Informers) Bill 2010 to protect whistleblowers who raise the alarm over corruption in government ministries, offices and agencies. The proposed law seeks to empower anyone who wishes to make a complaint of corruption or disclosure against a central government employee or any other central government-backed institution to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
But critics are cynical if this fearless crusader will be able to sustain this confection of positive energies – something which propelled him from an ordinary man to an extraordinary icon. Some feel that he’s been hopping from too many issues – farmer’s rights, corruption by politicians, protest against big dams and so on.
But it can said without any doubt that Gogoi is one of the most remarkable stories to emerge from contemporary Assam. In the days to come, maybe he will have to continue to reinvent himself and evolve into someone different while still keeping the essential DNA of his crusade for people’s ideology intact.
ends
By Teresa Rehman
------Overnight, an average looking man with disheveled hair and beard, dressed austerely in an unironed shirt and trousers and a pair of chappals has become a household name in the murky landscape of Northeast India – a region often in the news for violence and bloodshed. Assam’s farmer rights activist Akhil Gogoi had an almost cinematic ingress into the public eye. His recent bare-knuckled tirade against alleged corruption by a heavyweight Congress leader has turned him into a dare-devil whistleblower against deep-rooted corruption in the political circles.
Gogoi became a readymade saleable package, more of a phenomenon that local media could not stop shrieking about. As soon as he steps out from a public meeting he is swallowed by a group of zealous mediapersons. The unassuming man is now being featured in blogs and youtube. His name has almost become a euphemism for ‘someone who fights against corruption’. Gogoi seems to have divined a mammoth common nerve in the society: the empowering potency of being shown you can choose otherwise and is the basis for the making of ‘the Akhil Gogoi factor’.
His decision to wage a war against corruption has triggered animated political, civil society and media debate. His diatribe has uncorked a dormant emotion in society and now its common to hear disgruntled people say, “Let’s put Akhil Gogoi on the trail” or “Only Akhil Gogoi can do something”.
A facebook group titled “Supporting Akhil Gogoi” in May 2010 had garnered as many as 1550 members. Aryama Dutta Saikia, who initiated the facebook group rues, “Our Supporting Akhil Gogoi page on Facebook has been temporarily blocked. It’s surprising because one needs more than 100 "reports" for an FB page to be blocked.”
To challenge corruption in a system where it is already widespread and deep-entrenched may appear futile. Gogoi seems to have filled a vacuum which the younger generation in Assam like Saikia needs to be filled. Saikia rues, “For years, we have been complaining about corruption and saying "Why doesn't someone do something?" We waited and waited and waited. But, that miraculous "someone" did not come to our rescue. In fact, every time a common man such as a Manjunath or a Satyendra Dubey emerges, the opposing forces drown his voice. It is unrealistic and unfair to expect one Akhil Gogoi to eradicate corruption in Assam.”
The group led by Saikia have also been organizing candle-light ‘anti-corruption’ vigils in different parts of the state as well as in Delhi. “Most of us secretly harbor fantasies of being a hero, exterminating corruption and making a difference in the society. Well, in Assam, Akhil Gogoi and his organization, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), are doing exactly this,” says Saikia.
Riding high on his huge popularity, Gogoi who was born into a cultivator’s family is now furiously presiding over farmer’s meetings all over the state. The peasant leader called upon the public to be alert against misuse of public fund by public servants and racketeers who pilferage funds meant for social welfare. He was also honoured with the second Manjunath Shanmugam Integrity Award in 2008 for his fight against corruption.
He also received the National RTI Awards in 2010 by the Public Cause Research Foundation (PCRF) for his for his role in exposing corruption in various schemes like the Indira Awas Yojana and the Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana. He is credited to taking RTI to the masses and holding the government accountable for its actions.
Gogoi has been working relentlessly for the cause of farmers in Assam since 2002 as the general secretary of the KMSS. KMSS is now a part of the National Alliance of Peoples Movement led by activist Medha Patkar and enjoys huge popularity in rural areas of Assam. In fact, Patkar joined him at a huge farmer’s rally in the heart of Guwahati city demanding an immediate halt to mega river-dam projects in Arunachal Pradesh and other northeastern States.
But Gogoi is more importantly credited to ushering in a modern-day nascent farmer’s movement in the state. History is strewn with tales of peasant’s movements and how the ruling class tried to throttle them. Assam too, had witnessed the Peasants’ Revolution of Sarukshetri in the erstwhile Barpeta subdivision of Kamrup district where ‘Raijmelah’ or the protest meeting was held in January 1894. The triggering factor for this movement was the proposed resettlement of land and abnormal hike in the land revenue. The Raijmel is a significant occurrence as it stirred the movement against the British rule in the early 20th century. The British rulers then tried to ruthlessly crush the movement in all possible ways.
Gogoi too had to face the wrath of the state – he has been from time to time branded ‘Maoist’, a ‘land-grabber’ and an ‘absconder’ by the state. With rumours of Gogoi having a threat to his life, the state government took no chances and gave him security cover in the form of a lone security guard. This is interesting in the light of the fact that the Centre is contemplating enacting the Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of Informers) Bill 2010 to protect whistleblowers who raise the alarm over corruption in government ministries, offices and agencies. The proposed law seeks to empower anyone who wishes to make a complaint of corruption or disclosure against a central government employee or any other central government-backed institution to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
But critics are cynical if this fearless crusader will be able to sustain this confection of positive energies – something which propelled him from an ordinary man to an extraordinary icon. Some feel that he’s been hopping from too many issues – farmer’s rights, corruption by politicians, protest against big dams and so on.
But it can said without any doubt that Gogoi is one of the most remarkable stories to emerge from contemporary Assam. In the days to come, maybe he will have to continue to reinvent himself and evolve into someone different while still keeping the essential DNA of his crusade for people’s ideology intact.
ends
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