Dr Bhaskar Choudhury: The Floodplain Guardians and the Elephants of Kaziranga

David travels to the floodplains of Assam to meet the Wildlife Trust of India’s Dr Bhaskar Choudhury, veterinarian and project head of the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) in the heart of Kaziranga Tiger Reserve. From one-horned rhinos and swamp deer to clouded leopards and king cobras, Kaziranga’s UNESCO-protected grasslands host a breathtaking array of life – yet each monsoon, the mighty Brahmaputra River rises, displacing animals into the paths of highways, villages, and tea estates. Dr Choudhury’s team rescues the injured, the orphaned, and the lost – from palm squirrels to Asian elephants – nursing them back to the wild in what can be a ten-year journey of care, acclimatisation, and eventual release. Together, they discuss the delicate science of wildlife rehabilitation, the changing flood patterns of a climate-altered landscape, and the deep reverence with which Assam’s people greet the elephants they call gods. Along the way, Dr Choudhury reveals the quiet triumphs and heartbreaks of rewilding India’s giants — and why, after decades of work, the moment an elephant calf rejoins a wild herd still feels like a prayer answered. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to Dr Bhaskar Choudhury: The Floodplain Guardians and the Elephants of Kaziranga online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Dr Bhaskar Choudhury: The Floodplain Guardians and the Elephants of Kaziranga is an episode from Trees A Crowd by David Oakes.

This episode is 30:01 long.

This episode was published on Nov 18, 2025.

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