Buddhiswar Boro was in his early teens when he started poaching elephants and rhinoceros to sell their trunks and horns to make a living. Back in the 80s he joined a political revolution, got a gun, and started smuggling countless tusks and horns from India to Bhutan.
An extremely volatile childhood during the peak of the Bodo Liberation Movement and the ensuing violence, lawlessness and unemployment are the circumstances under which Boro became a part of the nefarious wildlife animal trade. He gave up arms in 2003 after the creation of the Bodoland Territorial Council – an autonomous region within India. This also marked the end of almost two decades of insurgency and violence in north-west Assam.
Boro and many others like him were counselled to use their intimate knowledge of the jungles in Assam and their wildlife to help conserve and protect them. Since Boro lost one of his arms during a hunt many years ago, he works as a patrolman and a guide inside Manas National Park.
He tells VICE WORLD NEWS why he’s left that life behind to become a protector of wildlife in the very forests where he used to hunt for decades.
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