“Everyone gets scared. What’s important is facing your fear. That is what I did,” says Rasila Wadher, the first woman Range First Officer (RFO) of India.
After being appointed the first woman forest guard in the country way back in 2007, Wadher has repeatedly put her life at risk to save the lives of numerous animals. This daredevil woman has carried out more than 1,100 rescue operations and saved lions, panthers, crocodiles, pythons, and many more. Her weapons – courage, experience and resourcefulness.
Born in the tiny village of Bhandori in the Junagadh district, Wadher lost her father at a very young age; her mother has been her inspiration. “My mother, Rajuben, had brought up two children and I saw her fearlessly taking on the world,” beams Wadher.
“It is said that behind every successful woman there is a man and vice versa but for me, a woman – my mom – was behind my success,” adds Wadher.
Wadher graduated in Arts and was always interested in wildlife and being a sportsperson pushed her to apply for the forest guard job. She was only 21 when she joined the forest guard. That was the year the forest department of the Gujarat government opened this position to women for the first time.
In a job profile where women were unheard of, Wadher was not only was the first woman forest guard in India but also received a promotion within a year and became the first woman Rescue Forester too.
Later on, she also served as the first team leader of the rescue team. Currently, Wadher is in the social forestry department serving as an RFO in the Prabhas Patan range in the Veraval Gir district.
When she joined, Wadher was keen on proving her mettle and understood her share of responsibility. In her first mission, she was part of a team that got a call about a lioness who was injured. Thorns were pricking her neck making her unable to eat. This was in the Dedkadi range. “We tried two methods to rescue the lioness as she was weak, however, it didn’t work out. Finally, it was nightfall and a late-night operation is considered risky especially when you are working with wild animals as you cannot predict their movement,” recalls Wadher.
“The veterinary doctor advised us to carry out the operation the next day after we were attacked by the lioness. However, I knew if I did not complete the first operation then only, it will impact the future of women in this job, so I insisted we finish the mission that night,” reminisces Wadher.
The operation lasted the entire night and they were successful in rescuing the lioness. The team was ecstatic.
Without any formal training, Wadher has been safely rescuing animals since 2007 and has been lucky to escape largely unhurt so far. During her time as a rescue forester, she was once trying to rescue a leopard and sustained an injury. “I was putting the microchip on a leopard and the leopard latched onto my hand. The struggle resulted in 15 stitches on my hand,” she says with the same ease as someone describing any normal day.
When she got married in 2014, her in-laws were equally supportive. Wadher says that two former chief ministers of Gujarat – Narendra Modi and Anandi Patel – have acknowledged her efforts. Patel gave her the moniker of ‘Lioness of Gir’. Wadher has also been awarded the Nari Ratna among other accolades.
Photos by Wild Streak of Nature
