Famously referred to as the ‘Elephant Girl’ (Hasti Kanya) in Assam, Parbati Baruah, who is 67 years old and has been named as a recipient of the Padma Shri award, holds the distinction of being the first female mahout (elephant keeper) in India. The honor was bestowed upon Baruah to acknowledge her contributions to wildlife preservation and for challenging stereotypes, thereby establishing a presence for women in an occupation traditionally occupied by males.
Barua was a descendant of the Gauripur nobility in Assam’s Goalpara area, and at the age of 14, alongside her father Prakritish Barua, she captured her inaugural elephant in the Kachugaon forest within Kokrajhar district. Over a span of four decades, she dedicated herself to mitigating clashes between humans and elephants, while also challenging the gender norms associated with her line of work. Assam has been historically prone to human-elephant disputes, and Baruah played a key role in shaping official policies to manage these incidents.
She became highly skilled at calming and controlling untamed elephants. Her deep understanding of elephant behavior earned her recognition beyond her home state of Assam, extending to West Bengal and Odisha. Baruah lent her support to local forest officials by helping to guide problematic elephants from farmlands back to the forests. Her life and work inspired British travel writer and naturalist Mark Roland Shand to author a book titled “Queen of the Elephants,” which was published in 1996.
The book’s success led to a well-received BBC documentary. After dedicating over four decades to working as a mahout, Parbati devoted herself to wildlife preservation and is now a member of the IUCN’s Asian Elephant Specialist Group. Her family has received a second Padma award with this honor. Her sister, the esteemed folk singer Pratima Pandey Barua, had previously been awarded the Padma Shri by the Indian government. They are also kin to Pramathesh Barua, a celebrated filmmaker.
