MARAJÓ ISLAND, Brazil — Legends flourish about how the
first Asian water buffaloes made it to this colossal island in the
Amazon River Delta.
One tale holds that they originally came from the
steamy rice fields of French Indochina, but washed up here after
the wreck of a ship bound for French Guiana. Another yarn contends
that inmates escaping from a penal colony in French Guiana used the
adroitly swimming buffaloes to help guide their makeshift barges
all the way to freedom in Marajó’s mangroves.
However they arrived, the invasive species multiplied
on Marajó, and now numbers about 450,000 on an island the size of
Switzerland. So much of daily life here revolves around the water
buffaloes that islanders haul garbage with them, race them during
festivals and regularly savor fillets of buffalo steak smothered in
cheese made from, yes, buffalo milk.
“The importance of the buffalo in Marajó got us
thinking,” said Maj. Francisco Nóbrega, 41, an official with the
8th Battalion of the military police of Pará, the vast state in
Brazil’s Amazon that encompasses Marajó. “Why not patrol on buffalo
as well?”
Seizing on that idea, one of Brazils most unusual
policing experiments came into existence. Water buffaloes have been
domesticated elsewhere for thousand of years, called “the living
tractor of the East” for their role in plowing fields, but officers
with the 8th Battalion here hatched a plan to make their rounds
atop the crescent-horned beasts.
Once a year, the battalion even places its buffaloes
and police officers on a ship to Belém, the capital of Pará, where
each Sept. 7 they strut down avenues in parades commemorating
Brazil’s declaration of independence from Portugal.
The buffalo unit started in the 1990s, patrolling the
sleepy outpost of Soure, which has about 23,000 people, and
breaking up the occasional bar fight.
Over the years, the mission has expanded to include
pursuing suspects who flee into Marajó’s wilds and cracking down on
buffalo rustling on the island’s far-reaching ranches.
“Water buffaloes are remarkable swimmers, better than
dogs, and more agile than horses when it comes to moving through
mud,” said José Ribamar Marques, an official on Marajó with
Embrapa, the pin Brazilian research company that focuses on
tropical ranching and agriculture. “The animal is also docile,
facilitating its contact with human beings.”
Indeed, the buffaloes of Marajó have certain
advantages.
Their widely splayed hooves allow them to move with
relative ease through muddy swamps. They also seem to deal well
with the punishing heat of Marajó, which sits almost directly on
the Equator.
Several breeds thrive on Marajó, like the Murrah,
prized for its meat and milk, and the Carabao, known for its
sickle-shaped horns. (Asian water buffaloes differ from the
American buffalo, which is a bison, despite its name.)
And there is another benefit of using water buffaloes
in police work, some officials say: It helps lower tensions.
“This is the kind of place where everybody knows
everybody’s business,” said Claudio Vitelli, 45, a police officer
who regularly patrols on a buffalo. “I’ve had to arrest an uncle of
mine for a petty offense, and before that, a cousin.”
“Being the guy on the buffalo makes me more
approachable, making my job a little bit easier,” he added.
Brazil’s military police are somewhat akin to state
police in the United States, in the sense that they are controlled
by state governments. But the forces are imbued with militarized
traditions, like wearing combat fatigues, and their heavy-handed
policing methods have produced an array of rights abuses, including
forced disappearances and killing of people presumed to be
innocent.
Despite its laid-back vibe, this island is no stranger
to the ire produced by such episodes. After a police officer
fatally shot a man in 2011 in São Sebastião da Boa Vista, a town on
Marajó,furious residents freed the prisoners in the local jail,
burned the police station to the ground and sent
police officers fleeing to other parts of the island.
In the town of Soure, where the 8th Battalion operates
from a small station adjacent to a corral with about 10 buffaloes,
police officers claim that patrolling on the animals can assuage
tension with residents by bringing low-ranking personnel in the
military police, commonly called soldiers, into contact with people
who use buffaloes for transportation, farming or other work.
The policing experiment has drawn interest elsewhere in
the country. Piaui, a highbrow magazine in Rio de Janeiro, called
the unit Brazil’s “Buffalo Soldiers,” a riff on Bob Marley’s raggae
class and the song’s inspiration, the African-American
regiments of the American West in the 19th century. (The American
soldiers rode horses, however, not buffaloes.)
Some on Marajó appreciate the attention.
“Few people know how important our buffaloes truly are,
but our police are raising awareness,” said Antenor Penante, 30,
the manager of a family-owned tannery, who proudly described how
his business uses the dried penises of water buffaloes to make
horse whips and riding crops.
“We don’t waste any part of the buffalo,” said Mr.
Penante, pointing to a collection of purses made from buffalo
scrotums in his tannery’s store. “Marajó should be proud of its
herds.”
Though water buffaloes can be found elsewhere in
Brazil, other police forces seem to have avoided using the animals
for policing.
Still, officers in the 8th Battalion say they are
prepared to lend their buffalo expertise to interested parties,
mentioning the Brazilian Army’s respected Jungle Warfare
Instruction Centre, which sent instructors here to learn how to use
Asian water buffaloes to replace mules and horses for supplying
troops in the rain forest.
“Brazil is a tropical country, and that means we have
to find tropical solutions for the challenges we face,” said
Emerson Cassiano, 42, a police officer in the buffalo unit.
“My friends tease me, saying a buffalo is only good for
cutting up into steaks, but that’s an ignorant point of view,” Mr.
Cassiano added. “Look what people have accomplished since they
started riding horses instead of eating them. Our buffalo patrol
could be the start of something huge.”
