Subsistence farming is a way of life at Ram Terang Village, as children and women plant the small plots next to their huts. Yet wild elephants often forage through their gardens in search of food destroying huts and killing people.

Elephants migratory routes merge with Ram Terang's Village where they eat their newly planted gardens next to their huts. The villagers lose most of their crops to the elephants. In their new homes their small private gardens, next to their houses will also be safe with new solar electric fences.

New land has been purchased away from the elephants migratory paths by NGOs in India for the indigenous tribe in Assam. The farmers yield is much larger because the elephants do not eat and destroy their crops.

The villagers previously used “sifting” where they cut down large parts of the forest and burnt it for cultivation. With help from the Wildlife Trust of India, they are learning to replant the same fields, use better quality seeds and improve cultivation. Their yield will improve dramatically.

The grandmother and sister of Bronson share a photo and story of the boy killed by an elephant. "It was a Saturday and my grandson Bronson, age 22, went to the fields alone to collect chilis and on the way he met an elephant. Some villagers later found Bronson lying on the side of the path. His body had been trampled and there was an elephant close by." The people of Sar Kro village went together and brought his dead body to his house. His body was then sent to the local Hospital for a post mortem hoping the government would give our family compensation but they refused.

Children from the Ram Terang Village gather at the grave sight of another woman who was killed by an elephant in the middle of the night. Mondal Terang from Ram Terang Village describes her death. "It was around 6:30 in the evening when an elephant came from the hillside and attacked my sister’s house. The elephant knocked down the backside of the house and the wall fell upon the body of Juli. The elephant trampled the backside of my sister. Her baby was by her side crying but the elephant stood over them the whole night. The villagers and I could not do anything. The next morning around 5 o’clock, the elephant left the house. We took the baby and my sister’s funeral was performed the next day. The baby was taken care of by her grandmother who was suffering from tuberculosis. Soon after the attack the baby died. The elephant that attacked my sister was a male in musth. The baby’s father’s was Kangbura Ingdi. After the death of the baby her father left for Kerala to earn money. For almost 2 years there has been no news of him.”

The villagers of Ram Terang gather together in Church on Easter Sunday. They are a very close community and are very supportive of each other.

The elephants of India live in vast forests and they migrate large distances foraging for food and water. The problem is they are competing with mankind for land. Increasing numbers of people are moving into the forests for farming and building villages at an alarming rate. The forests are disappearing rapidly and the elephant’s habitat is shrinking.

Ram Terang Village is waiting to be moved by The Elephant Family and the Wildlife Trust of India. The NGO's are building them a new village with brick walls, running water and safety from the elephants with solar electric fences. In the meantime, Ram Terang villagers continue to live in their old village in mud huts.

The Village's Chief's wife, cooks on an open fire pit in her mud hut with her daughter at her side.

At the edge of the forest, there is a small river with a spring where the villagers go for their water. There is only one small well in their village and spring water is much fresher. Women collect water and carry it back to their huts for cooking and families gather there every morning for their daily wash. There is always the danger that elephants, needing large amounts of water for drinking and washing, will also come to the springs. In their new village there will be several wells next to their houses, far from the wild elephants.

The local stream is a center of the community and family. Elephants are always nearby.

In Ram Terang Village, the younger children attend school in the village. Teachers come by bus but they are often absent as it is a long way to the village and the bus system is very poor in their area. When they are moved to their new location, they will be closer to good public transportation, better schools and schools for the older children.

Children at Ram Terang Village attend school erratically and most go without desks or books.

A local woman in Ram Terang Village sells local goods from her hut. She visits the local store, buys supplies and makes a profit on them as most people cannot go into town regularly.

Women in Ram Terang Village collect firewood in the nearby forests. They are always in danger of meeting elephants in the forest. They are very quiet animals as they walk through the forest grazing on local plants. If an elephant encounters a human in the wild, they will often attack them. It is very dangerous and the women often go in larger groups for protection.

A young girl from Ram Terang Village prepares her basket to collect wood in the forest with her mother and sisters.

Elephant Corridors are small forests, which serve as links to national parks and larger forests, where elephants live safely in the wild. They are a “Rite of Passage” and the best way to protect wild elephants. There are currently 88 corridors throughout India. This is where many indigenous tribes are building new villages and they are competing with elephants for land.

Indigenous tribes continue to settle throughout the corridors in the forest. They clear the land to grow crops and build villages destroying the elephant’s food supply. When the elephant corridors become fragmented, hungry elephants damage homes, acres of crops and endanger human lives. In many cases communities retaliate by killing elephants.

Indigenous Tribes continue to move onto Forest Department Lands in India in the middle of the Elephant Corridors. They are very poor and have no where else to go.

Delip Kro, Head tribesman of the neighboring Sar Kro Village, made his land available to the Karbi tribe to build their new village on. The Karbi had built their village within the Elephant Corridor and knew they could be evicted at any time. He said they had a bond of brotherhood and didn’t want them to have to leave.

As Ram Terang says, “Moving the village will be good for the community and life will be more relaxed.” With help from concerned NGO's, villagers lives will improve on many levels and the elephants can live free to roam in the forests in their natural environment.