IWN Report — Thursday, 8 October 2026
Aaranyak has published the account of a Class 9 student from Sivasagar district who took part in its elephant outreach between 2022 and 2025, a programme running in three villages around Panidehing where she says she has watched elephant numbers fall and conflict with people rise.
According to Aaranyak, whose Elephant and Rhino Conservation Division wrote the post on 7 October, the work began in 2022 in Charaguwa Grant, Majumelia and Chamorajan. The student joined in Gajah Kotha, World Environment Day events, nature walks, bird-watching, biodiversity awareness programmes and conservation dramas.
Gajah Kotha is a campaign in two phases. The first covers elephant ecology, the animal’s place in local culture and its conservation status, and the second turns to human-elephant conflict and the mitigation measures that have been tested. Aaranyak says the pictorial posters were especially popular with students.
The conservation drama drew children from her neighbourhood under the guidance of a project assistant at Aaranyak, and it was staged in Charaguwa Grant before travelling to Gelapather High School in a neighbouring village. Bird-watching sessions tied to Migratory Bird Day and National Bird Day taught the students to recognise local species.
The student told Aaranyak that her role model is Jadav Payeng and that conservation begins with awareness inside communities. She has seen illegal bird poaching and bird trade around Panidehing, and her most memorable sighting there was a herd of about 200 elephants. In her view, blocked corridors push elephants onto land where people live, and electric fencing can kill them. She also pointed to the elephants’ role in opening pathways through forest and spreading seeds in their dung. For young people who want to help, she suggests social media and small programmes pitched at their own schools and neighbourhoods.
Manas Villages
A second Aaranyak post, published on 26 September, looks at the same questions from the fringe of Manas National Park. A general member of the organisation who studies at Abhayapuri College describes a summer 2025 internship in the park’s Kuklung Range, working on a study of how fringe villagers take part in conservation and what they think of Manas Tiger Reserve.
The villagers he met are mostly Bodo. Areca nut farming is their main livelihood, and Aaranyak’s account says farmers often have to sell below market rates. Elephants and monkeys damage crops, drought has hurt paddy planting, electricity and drinking water are unreliable, and healthcare is hard to reach.
The team saw no elephants or monkeys during the visit, since a fence had been put up some months earlier. Villagers generally accept the electric fence and the protected area, according to the post, and ask for faster compensation for crop damage and for alternative livelihoods.
Sources: Aaranyak, “Every step matters: Youth involvement in elephant conservation” (7 October 2026) · Aaranyak, “The People Behind the Protection: A summer with fringe villagers of Manas National Park” (26 September 2026)