India’s elephants are in mortal danger, and this photographer is trying to fix that…

On a winter morning in 2013, a herd of 45 elephants was trudging across the forests near Bishnupur, West Bengal. About 10 of them went ahead to check if the tracks at the Bisra Munda Halt Station were clear and summoned the rest of the herd. Nearly each one of them managed to cross, except a calf who struggled to alight the platform that had come up right in the middle of their migratory path. It was five agonising minutes before the calf finally mustered the courage to get off the ramp and cross the live railway track. Biplab Hazra caught this agonising moment on camera.

A mother and her calf cross the tracks at the Birsa Munda Halt station in West Bengal’s Bankura district. Photo: Biplab Hazra

After the photograph earned him a certificate of merit at the Sanctuary Wildlife Photography awards this year, it went viral on social media. Hazra, a self-trained photographer, told us more about this death trap. “It’s very sad. The platform is built in the middle of the forest. Till date, I have not seen a single person get on or off at the station. In fact, the electric wires, switches and fans have been stolen by the villagers. The ticket counter is the only thing that remains.”

The 40-year-old businessman took to photography when he started strolling the jungle with his photojournalist friend. What started off as a hobby went on to become a social justice project. “If the station was built 100m away, the elephant corridor would not have been affected,” he adds. He complained to the railway authorities but nothing changed. “I’m a small man. I feel helpless,” he says.

Track deaths are a major contributor to elephant fatalities in India. In 2018 so far, 26 elephants have died after being knocked down by trains. Over the past five years, around 100 elephants have died in this manner, according to the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

Hazra’s photograph captures this man-animal conflict. And he may have had limited success with the Railways, but his work has changed the ground reality in at least one instance. In 2016, Hazra came upon a bunch of villagers, near Bishnupur again, using fireballs and torches to scare elephants away from their village. This violent act was sanctioned by the forest department itself. During this raid, the fire scorched a mother elephant and her calf as they tried to flee the mob.

Hazra captured this horrific moment, which quickly spread across the Internet. It triggered a massive outrage, following which the Supreme Court banned the use of fireballs and torches to keep elephants away, terming the act “barbaric”.

Today, Hazra continues to use his camera to protect elephants, one photograph at a time.

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