‘This incident is from the year 1954. I was doing something in my home when suddenly Mohd Abdul Basik, the muhuri of the estate, hurried in on his bicycle. He informed me that a big tiger had entered the 3 No. garden and all the labourers had stopped plucking and fled from the site, and the manager had summoned me.
“I picked up my rifle and followed him. As I reached the 3 No. garden, I saw the manager surrounded by a group of frightened labourers. The manager pointed towards the direction where the tiger was. Basik also followed me in that direction. Suddenly, the tiger emerged and sprang towards Basik. I picked up my rifle and fired twice. The first shot pierced the tiger’s mouth, while the second bullet entered its skull. I believe the second shot killed the cat. An overwhelmed Basik came and shook my hand, saying that my gun had saved his life that day!’
This anecdote was shared by Sabharam Saikia in his personal diary, where he wrote about his hunting escapades. He killed 16 tigers and 29 leopards while working in the Jiyajuri tea estate in the Chapanala area of Nagaon district of Assam, from the years after Independence until the Wildlife Protection Act was imposed in 1972.
Saikia’s skill as a hunter was acquired from his experience of serving as a marksman for the Royal British Army during the Second World War.
Interestingly, it was a series of incredible coincidences that turned Saikia into both a soldier and a hunter.
Accidental soldier
It was pure chance that put Saikia on a ship carrying Indian soldiers to fight Mussolini’s Axis forces in North Africa. Born on June 12, 1920, Saikia, who hailed from Bhoraguri village under Samaguri Police Station in the Nagaon district of Assam, had no plans of becoming a soldier.
Speaking to EastMojo, Kamal Saikia, the eldest of the five sons of Sabharam Saikia, said, “Our ancestors originally hailed from Lakhimpur, but they had to flee the place during the Man invasion. Later, we shifted to Bhoraguri near Puronigudam. My father could not clear his matriculation examination but got a job in the police. However, he had an argument with his superior, a British sahib, and he ended up hitting the officer. A lookout notice was issued for him, and he boarded a train to escape. He reached Lucknow, and there he found out that a recruitment drive was going on to enrol cadres for the Second World War.”
After training for one month, Saikia was placed on one of the seven ships carrying 10,000 Indian soldiers to North Africa. After fighting there for a few months, he moved to Italy, where he served from 1943 to 1945. The battles between the British Army and the Axis forces in Italy, especially at Monte Cassino and the Gothic Line, played a significant role in determining the outcome of the war.
“Deuta told us about the valour of Assamese youth at the front whom he met there, like Biru Kochari of Lakhimpur, Sorbeswar Bora of Tezpur and Lalit Kalita from Guwahati. There was a very strong friendship between the four of them. However, only my father could return alive from the battlefield,” recalls 77-year-old Kamal Saikia.
Saikia served in the Army for a few more years and took voluntary retirement just four months before India became independent in 1947. He retired with the rank of Naik, a non-commissioned officer in the Royal Indian Army, equivalent to a Corporal today.
Kamal Saikia says, “He got married in 1947, and so his family wanted him to return to civilian life. At that time, he was getting a salary of ₹69, but because he took voluntary retirement, he did not receive any pension. This is a decision he regretted throughout his life.”
Scourge of big cats in Nagaon
After retiring from the military, Saikia joined as a clerk in a tea garden in 1948 in Dibrugarh district. After working there for six years, he returned to Nagaon and began working at the Jiyajuri tea estate, which was owned by Duncan Brothers at the time.
He joined as a third factory clerk and retired in 1983 as Head Tea Manufacturer. However, it was not his official work but his exploits as a hunter that made him a legend in the tea garden.
“At that time, a British gentleman named Alexander Anderson was the manager of Jiyajuri tea estate. When he came to know about my father’s past as a soldier, he asked him to shoot troublesome animals such as leopards and tigers, which would terrorise labourers working in the tea gardens and nearby villagers.”
Saikia complied, and very soon his reputation as a hunter spread across the region. “While incidents of attacks on humans were rare, tigers used to kill domestic cattle regularly. However, cows were the most valuable asset for the rural population then, as they were used to plough fields. So not just Jiyajuri, people used to summon my father from Puronigudam and even Burapahar. There used to be a large number of tigers in that area. In fact, there is a place in Chapanala called Bagheghati, which means ‘tiger’s area’. A British officer had constructed a dak bungalow there just for observing tigers,” said Saikia.
Post-colonial hunting
Before Independence, hundreds of tigers were killed in Assam by Assamese noblemen, zamindars and British officials for sport. Tarun Ram Phukan and Prasanna Lal Choudhury wrote extensively about big game hunting in Assam.
Noted wildlife historian Raza Kazmi told EastMojo, “Hunting for ‘sport’ was an integral part of outdoor life for many Indians post-Independence. While a number of such Indians were related to various princely states and zamindaris, quite a few hunters also came from a military background. At a time when hunting was not outlawed and was considered socially acceptable, many Indian hunters saw it as an extension of their passion for the outdoors.”
Tea planters in Assam continued this tradition after Independence. Padma Shri-winning veterinarian Kushal Konwar Sarma told EastMojo, “As tea gardens were mostly established by clearing forest land, there used to be regular conflict with wild animals. Tea planters killed tigers to protect garden labourers and their domestic cattle. In fact, the government then allowed hunters to shoot troublesome animals. Licences were also provided to kill elephants, and tusks were allowed to be kept as trophies.”
Kaushik Baruah, former Honorary Wildlife Warden of Guwahati, names Jagadhar Baruah of Jakhalabandha and Hem Goswami of Nagaon as well-known hunters from that era. “Also, Kamakhya Prasad Barooah was a renowned hunter. Dinesh Choudhury used to kill elephants, while Ziaur Rahman killed many man-eating tigers,” Baruah told EastMojo.
Retired Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Ramesh Gogoi, who served in Assam’s forests for close to four decades, told EastMojo that wildlife conservation was hardly a priority for the department until the mid-1980s. “In 1985, I joined Kaziranga as a Ranger. In our written examination, the subject of wildlife carried just 50 marks,” he said.
Later years of Sabharam Saikia
Even after he stopped hunting, the double-barrel shotgun he possessed remained a prized possession. “He kept that rifle until 1990, when the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) seized the gun for their movement. They even provided a receipt on their letterhead for it. We never got the gun back. This incident made my father quite heartbroken,” said Kamal Saikia.
Sabharam Saikia passed away in 2008. Until his last days, he lived close to nature. He had a small chang ghar near the forest, where he spent many nights observing elephants and other wild animals.
His family later opened a small tea garden near Chapanala called SRT Mini Plantation in 2011. Kamal Saikia, who looks after the estate, said, “It is set up on an area of around six hectares. We mainly grow the CTC variety of tea. The garden was set up in memory of my father, to honour his lifelong association with tea.”
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