Hide And Seek: Saving Thick skin

When it comes to poaching rhinos, there's no place better than Kaziranga, home to 1,700 rhinos. That is why, when closing in on armed poachers, it is either kill or let the rhino die. The latter is not an option for Dharani Dhar Boro. This range officer's record after being posted to KNP in 1987 reflects this: 23 poachers killed. 101 arrested. But when he's got time, the gentler side of this 48-year-old officer emerges. He gives quintals of peas to local poachers, hoping "reform will happen with harvest". It did. Says Matu Gogoi: "I used to kill rhinos ten years ago. Boro-sir gave me food and I stopped". With bullets, peas and a network of informers, Boro reduced rhino poaching from 20 to nil in '96.

Rhinos alive mean more than his ten awards and honours. "Science can do anything, but it can't recreate the rhinoceros," he says. That's why he's mentored forester Banikanto Saikia, who says, "Boro-sir has taught me all that I know."

Respect is the only perk Boro enjoys. The other is a white Maruti Gypsy registered in West Bengal. It originally belonged to Maya Devi, ringleader of rhino-horn smugglers, whose gang Boro busted. When prodded, he admits that a ride in Maya Devi's smuggling vehicle "does wonders for my spirit."