GUWAHATI: Tea grower Tenzing Bodosa 's plantations along the India-Bhutan border in Udalguri district has become the world's first to get the tag of being Elephant Friendly Certified Tea, an initiative launched by the Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network (WFEN) and University of Montana to raise funds for elephant conservation"Yes, Tenzing's (two) plantations were the first to become certified Elephant Friendly in all of India, and in fact, the first in the world. There is interest in the certification program in Sri Lanka and Kenya, and in fact wherever tea and wild elephants overlap there is potential for tea and coffee plantations to work towards certification as Elephant Friendly", WFEN executive director Julie Stein said.Tenzing's plantations went through a rigorous process of adherence to standards developed by WFEN and University of Montana for getting the certificate under the pilot program for small tea growers. The standards have been developed to find out whether a plantation is free of key issues that harm elephants like the risk of electrocution, injury or death of elephants by falling into drains, risk of poisoning elephants from chemicals and blocking elephant corridors, among several others criteria.Udalguri happens to be one of the most human-elephant conflict prone areas in the state. At least 20 people and five elephants were killed last year alone in the district, with the conflict concentrated in villages and tea gardens along the international border. Bodosa has been working for a long time to make his tea gardens friendly to the environment.

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