IN MEMORIUM

RAJEN ISLARI

Died March 14, 2011

I first met Rajen Islari at an Indo-US Primate Conference held in Jodhpur, India in 1997. He was not a primatologist but more important to me he was a quiet unassuming villager from western Assam with the fire of an activist conservationist. I was attending the meeting to become re-involved in India after a 30 year hiatus.  Speaking with Rajen, I was convinced I had a potential partner in conservation.  I wasn’t disappointed because Rajen has been a tireless crusader for the forest and wildlife and an inspiration to all of us who were part of the Golden Langur Conservation Project and the Manas Biosphere Elephant Project.

From our first meeting, he has been a good friend and an activist community conservationist. He embodied what is best in Community Conservation. He introduced me to over a hundred villages in the Manas Biosphere and was a tireless campaigner to motivate his fellow villagers to protect their forests and wildlife.

From 1998 to 2004 he was my guide into the politics of Assam Forests.  Despite the militants in the forest I never feared to go anywhere because I knew that Rajen Islari was respected by the people in Assam and he was thorough in knowing what was safe to do.  Because of his guiding I went in to almost every area within the Manas Biosphere and met with most of the communities there. 

When the militant period was over in 2004 and we thought the forest would be safe, the log smugglers began to threaten forest staff and community members and some of us felt it was another hopeless situation. But Rajen Islari, always working for the good of the forest, contacted Sri Kampa Borgoyari, Minister of the Environment of the new Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) and offered to hand-pick a new Bodoland Forest Protection Force from forest villagers across the Biosphere if the BTC would support them with a modest salary. This idea grew until there are now 14 community groups protecting the entire Manas Biosphere Reserve.  Islari then worked to bring those groups together and he was elected President of the Unified Forest Conservation Network until his recent death.  A spiritual man, he was a quiet modest leader, embodying in its deepest sense Servant Leadership.

One of our colleagues said what we all were thinking – what will we do without Islari? But there is really only one answer – he will be the same inspiration in death as he was to all of us in life.  We can only honor him as he would wish and to carry on what was his passion – to protect the Assam forest that he loved and saved.

R. Horwich