Saturday, March 29, 2003
Encounter with a Rogue Elephant !
Journals of the two trips to Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, Thattekkad, Kerala.
The Photos are from the trip album
"How to survive an elephant attack ?".. all ears pricked up, eyes shifting focus between Jose and Sachariya, their face barely visible in dim flickering keroscene lamp.. the trackers narrating anecdotes of their wild encounters and escapades.. We were reclining on sleeping bags atop the forest watchtower (machaan) built on teak trees by the river Periyar,
Pattering rain on reed-leaf thatched roof brought the mercury down.. intermittent thunders and lightning, and sometimes squeaking mice, breaking the narrative flow. You can sense the sense of fulfillment in their eyes when talking about being out there to avert danger or save the lives of the aliens-to-the-jungle visitors to this one and only bird sanctuary of Kerala.
This special interest in elephants is triggered by my experience three weeks back
when I had come for the bird-survey.
Seeing the richness of the avifauna in the area, birdman Salim Ali recommended it to be declared a Protected Area. In fact, Dr Ali described this 25sqkm area as the richest bird-area in the subcontinent, in terms of the number of species that can be spotted.
<.<. Commander.
It's is my second visit in three weeks. For about an year, we'd been planning to visit, but didn't materialize. All my plans to make it to TTKD in Nov'02 also bit the dust. That's when the news of the 3-day Jan bird-survey came, and the invitation to volunteer. I didn't want to miss it at any cost as you can be in the company of some avid and expert birders and naturalists.. great chance to upgrade your field skills. Since none of the guys from Bangalore could do a three-day off from work, I had to pack off alone on that Thursday night. Caught the 9pm bus to EKLM and got off at Alwaye by 7:30. It was 10 when I reached the sanctuary gates, getting ferried across Periyar.
There were about 25 people in all who came for the survey, starting on Friday morning. Divided into groups of 5, each went birding in different areas. By evening all assembled at the dorm and discussed important sightings. The area assigned to the teams are switched the next day. After Sunday morning's outing, all sightings were collated and there were a total of 217 species identified.
Once we were done with the survey activities, birdman Eldhose promised to show us the much-talked-about but rarely seen, difficult-to-spot nocturnal bird, the Ceylon Frogmouth. Eldhose, a self-effacing guy, known to the locals as 'pakshi-Eldhose', is the best-known amateur birder in Kerala, who knows the sanctuary and its featherfolks like the back of his palm, and though without formal education beyond higher secondary level, he's been studying the Frogmouths with govt funding, which talks about his level of enthusiasm and the level of trust the officials have in his field skills. I'd been c
hecking with Eldhose the previous 2 days whether he would take us to show the Frogmouth.
Butterflies Mud-puddling :
About 10 of us followed Eldhose through the jeep track into the forest.. Mr Chandrashekhar, who's about 60yrs, was discussing about the elephants spotted in that area the previous day, saying "Ah, they were so gentle.. even posed for me to neatly frame a few shots". It's the area my group also went birding the same day morning, and once we sensed the presence of elephant heard ranging nearby, we decided to move away in the other direction. I and Prashant, a forestry student, wanting to get a glimpse, hanged around for a while longer, and we could spot two adults with a cub more than 100m away moving through thickly wooded area.
Slowly the conversation drifted to Frogmouths. I ensured that I've the tele lens fitted to the camera. About 2km into the trek, Eldhose stopped on the Jeep track, asking us to hang around. He would take 2-3 guys with him when he comes back after going alone to check the nest site of the birds to confirm their presence and also not to disturb.
Just when he disappeared towards our left off the track in the direction of the nest, from the right side heard some twigs being broken among the thicket next to the track. I weared the camera around the neck, looking into the thicket towards the crushing sound- visibility is not beyond some 10m. All silence, followed by people wondering aloud in anxious tones.."Aana ?" I craned my neck to see if there's any movement.. that's when through the corner of my eye, saw this HUGE figure bursting into the jeep track about 20-25m in front. Chaos. Threatening Trumpets. Commotion. Before I knew, I was running for dear life holding the camera, back to where we came from- only option we have, only path we know, only route we can run fast- faster than it ? donno-yet !! When I turned my head over the shoulder while still on the run, to see if it's got any intention to slow down after trying to scare us off. But the scene made me run all the more faster-I've never seen such rage and fury, of such mammoth size, raising the dust and making adrenalin flood, hurtling in our direction like an avalanche of doom and gloom.
It's either a tuskless male (makhna) or a female, very healthy one, bathed in dirt.
Turned my head to front.. zooming into sight, there's this tree trunk fallen across our path, cleared it in a long leap with extra thrust, thinking whether all people behind can clear it without slowing down, and if by any chance the elephant would slow down there. Thats when I looked over my shoulder again- all cleared ! but elephant neither slows nor does it show
any signs of leaving us. And as I expected, it's getting closer to Mr Chandrashekhar, the oldest of our lot.
A deep sense of helplessness was growing into me. But there was this younger chap running closer to him in front though he could have run faster, and now and then he's also shouting full-throat at the elephant to stop, trying his luck, but to no avail. Some more frenetic paces.. and there's another tree trunk lying low across the track.. when I just cleared it, saw someone in front fully airborne, tumbling after hitting some stumps.. I swerved my head to back again.. 'OH NO' I let out an involuntary loud guttural yell.. stopped and turned back.. felt terribly, miserably helpless.. the furious beast within its trunk's striking distance,
Mr Chandrashekhar, stumbling on that tree trunk hit the ground face down, literally bit the dust.. he lay motionless.. as though he had lost all hope to survive..
Its trunk almost touched his back before he fell.. and now, just one more step, and it would
have stepped on to him, but instead came to a halt !.. just at that very moment it raised the trunk and trumpeted disconcertingly, and in the most mysterious move, turned to its side as if something else has caught its attention and hurried back, turned right and went off the jeep track fast disappearing into the woods..
Henceforth, I'd hesitate to refer to a pachyderm as a 'Gentle-Giant':-)
I was so weighed down by the gravity of the situation, helplessness, sunken in the thought of an imminent tragedy.. that though holding camera in hand thru the chase, I didn't think of lifting it and firing a shot- only a bravado stunt would have made me do that. Even when I stopped and turned back to see him lying still with the black brute coming to a halt next to him, the overpowering poignancy made me forget about my camera completely !.
We've been chased for about 150m.. Breathing heavily, I walked upto Mr Chandrashekhar,
by now sitting up dazed, but contented to be 'still alive and unscathed !'.. still holding his camera in one hand and a lens on the other. I took the lens and gave a hand to get up..
There's a muddy mark at the back of his Tshirt- the elephant's trunk-print pattern !.
Only his legs are hurt and could limp back with some difficulty, happy that it's
the fallen tree-trunk which inflicted the injury, and not the elephant-trunk !
Nobody could convincingly explain why the elephant turned back- Theorizing...
Within a short while on our way back, met two of the trackers fully drenched, in dripping wet dress. They were walking along another jeep track nearby and that elephant later chased them also, and these two escaped by jumping into the river, Sachariya, the third tracker ran somewhere else, not yet seen around.
Midway back to the base camp, the jeep came for a lift after officials heard about the incident.
Everyone was talking about the unbelievably close escape and the elephant inexplicably leaving
the scene without harming anyone, though till the end it had looked irritated and determined to 'punish' intruders into its territory, and not just to chase them off..
<.<.Commander
That puzzling behaviour in the final scences of the chase, was haunting me even after my return to Bangalore. Looking for explanations, I turned to the book in Luke's collection, "Elephant Days and Nights" by Raman Sukumar of Center for Ecological Studies, at IISc. An expert in Asian Elephants, he has written about his 10 years, researching chasing and being chased by elephants in the forests of South India.
I did find the section detailing all the different kinds of threat displays and chases that
he observed, and there was this behavioural description of the kind of chase matching what we
went through- except for that very inexplicable denouement of the action-packed drama. In his observations, he mentioned that such a chase usually ends when it wraps the victim by its trunk and delivers deadly sledge-hammering blows !!
Two weeks after the survey, our clique of photography-n-birding aficionados decided to
head south to Thattekkad. I didn't think twice to join em. rang up the Asst Wildlife Warden again, this time with a request to arrange for accommodation for 6 guys, preferrably inside the forest. He agreed, to arrange either the tree-top watch-tower. but hesitated to add that after the survey, the elephants are in really wild mood, and in two weeks there has been many incidents of elephants chasing the trackers and so general visitors are not allowed in the areas where the elephants range.
But in our case, he sounded obliging to make arrangements, seemingly taking it for granted
that we are somewhat serious birders, and not the general merry-making noisy buncha tourists.
After reaching the sanctuary office, when deciding about where to camp for the night,
we were bombarded with more jumbo-mischief tales, and were warned of possible risks.
The excitement in the air ballooned and we decided to spend the night on the watch-tower itself, right in the elephant country.
That night, when relaxing atop the machaan after dinner, listening to Sachariya's tales,
he touched upon that by-now-famous chase on the last day of the survey when we had gone to
watch Frogmouth. I probed him furthur.. and.. the mystery of the miraculous escape was slowly unfolding.. ! He and two other trackers were walking down another jeep track which forked off from the one we (Eldhose and company) took towards Frogmouth nest.
After hearing the trumpets and commotion of the chase from a distance, Sachariya and friends ran towards our direction taking the trails through the thickets. Once he saw the rushing rouge, started shouting expletives full-throat, one of his ploys to divert the attention of the animal. Though none of us being chased sensed their presence since they were not visible.
Apparently, his voice startled the elephant, since that came from behind it- the area it thought it had cleared of intruders. Most striking about this is the timing, when it was about to strike Mr Chandrashekar down.. it stopped, turned away. It chased Sachariya and friends later and that's when two of 'em plunged into the river.
After listening to all the elephant stories, the next morning's trek inside the forest was
interestingly different outing, as every few meters we watched out listened for any trace of herds nearby; I also pressed my olfactory senses into non-stop service, expecting to catch that familiar jumbo scent wafting through the trees. Though there was too much expectation to spot a herd, all we cound find was just elephant-droppings all over our route.
When relaxing on the rocky clearing inside the forest, someone spotted sloth-bear scats on the
rocks. I turned to examine it trying to see if I can get any clue to its foodhabits, and I could gather that it had a very very fibrous vegetarian diet with some beetles and bugs thrown in. Others were amused at my scatological leaning. In fact I's more interested to see if there
are any traces of honeycomb, as in the all the bear stories from childhood, that's what the bears were always after.
The slight morning drizzle and cloudiness spoiled our chances of great birding as they were
not coming out and active like in the morning sun. Though we all enjoyed the trek, we came
out not-so-satisfied; except for the flock of ducks in a pond -about 500 Lesser Whistling Teals and other assorted group including Pintails and Gargeney- which took to noisy flight in 3 or 4 groups and kept circling for 10-15 minutes, there were not much action around. I could get a glimpse of this real impressive beauty, a Pied-Crested Cuckoo.
I came back lighter, literally- losing my sleeping bag- and otherwise, since I don't
have to lose sleep over the mystery of the chase, now that it's just history.
The Photos are from the trip album
"How to survive an elephant attack ?".. all ears pricked up, eyes shifting focus between Jose and Sachariya, their face barely visible in dim flickering keroscene lamp.. the trackers narrating anecdotes of their wild encounters and escapades.. We were reclining on sleeping bags atop the forest watchtower (machaan) built on teak trees by the river Periyar,
Pattering rain on reed-leaf thatched roof brought the mercury down.. intermittent thunders and lightning, and sometimes squeaking mice, breaking the narrative flow. You can sense the sense of fulfillment in their eyes when talking about being out there to avert danger or save the lives of the aliens-to-the-jungle visitors to this one and only bird sanctuary of Kerala.
This special interest in elephants is triggered by my experience three weeks back
when I had come for the bird-survey.
Seeing the richness of the avifauna in the area, birdman Salim Ali recommended it to be declared a Protected Area. In fact, Dr Ali described this 25sqkm area as the richest bird-area in the subcontinent, in terms of the number of species that can be spotted.<.<. Commander.
It's is my second visit in three weeks. For about an year, we'd been planning to visit, but didn't materialize. All my plans to make it to TTKD in Nov'02 also bit the dust. That's when the news of the 3-day Jan bird-survey came, and the invitation to volunteer. I didn't want to miss it at any cost as you can be in the company of some avid and expert birders and naturalists.. great chance to upgrade your field skills. Since none of the guys from Bangalore could do a three-day off from work, I had to pack off alone on that Thursday night. Caught the 9pm bus to EKLM and got off at Alwaye by 7:30. It was 10 when I reached the sanctuary gates, getting ferried across Periyar.
There were about 25 people in all who came for the survey, starting on Friday morning. Divided into groups of 5, each went birding in different areas. By evening all assembled at the dorm and discussed important sightings. The area assigned to the teams are switched the next day. After Sunday morning's outing, all sightings were collated and there were a total of 217 species identified.
Once we were done with the survey activities, birdman Eldhose promised to show us the much-talked-about but rarely seen, difficult-to-spot nocturnal bird, the Ceylon Frogmouth. Eldhose, a self-effacing guy, known to the locals as 'pakshi-Eldhose', is the best-known amateur birder in Kerala, who knows the sanctuary and its featherfolks like the back of his palm, and though without formal education beyond higher secondary level, he's been studying the Frogmouths with govt funding, which talks about his level of enthusiasm and the level of trust the officials have in his field skills. I'd been c
hecking with Eldhose the previous 2 days whether he would take us to show the Frogmouth.Butterflies Mud-puddling :
Spot Sword Tails (brown) and a Tailed Jay .>.>
(Many male butterflies can be found sipping at the moisture in puddles or wet sand and soil. These butterflies are getting more than water when they sip! They are also benefiting from the salts dissolved in this water. It is thought that these salts help increase a male butterfly's fertility.)
(Many male butterflies can be found sipping at the moisture in puddles or wet sand and soil. These butterflies are getting more than water when they sip! They are also benefiting from the salts dissolved in this water. It is thought that these salts help increase a male butterfly's fertility.)
About 10 of us followed Eldhose through the jeep track into the forest.. Mr Chandrashekhar, who's about 60yrs, was discussing about the elephants spotted in that area the previous day, saying "Ah, they were so gentle.. even posed for me to neatly frame a few shots". It's the area my group also went birding the same day morning, and once we sensed the presence of elephant heard ranging nearby, we decided to move away in the other direction. I and Prashant, a forestry student, wanting to get a glimpse, hanged around for a while longer, and we could spot two adults with a cub more than 100m away moving through thickly wooded area.
Slowly the conversation drifted to Frogmouths. I ensured that I've the tele lens fitted to the camera. About 2km into the trek, Eldhose stopped on the Jeep track, asking us to hang around. He would take 2-3 guys with him when he comes back after going alone to check the nest site of the birds to confirm their presence and also not to disturb.
Just when he disappeared towards our left off the track in the direction of the nest, from the right side heard some twigs being broken among the thicket next to the track. I weared the camera around the neck, looking into the thicket towards the crushing sound- visibility is not beyond some 10m. All silence, followed by people wondering aloud in anxious tones.."Aana ?" I craned my neck to see if there's any movement.. that's when through the corner of my eye, saw this HUGE figure bursting into the jeep track about 20-25m in front. Chaos. Threatening Trumpets. Commotion. Before I knew, I was running for dear life holding the camera, back to where we came from- only option we have, only path we know, only route we can run fast- faster than it ? donno-yet !! When I turned my head over the shoulder while still on the run, to see if it's got any intention to slow down after trying to scare us off. But the scene made me run all the more faster-I've never seen such rage and fury, of such mammoth size, raising the dust and making adrenalin flood, hurtling in our direction like an avalanche of doom and gloom.
It's either a tuskless male (makhna) or a female, very healthy one, bathed in dirt.
Turned my head to front.. zooming into sight, there's this tree trunk fallen across our path, cleared it in a long leap with extra thrust, thinking whether all people behind can clear it without slowing down, and if by any chance the elephant would slow down there. Thats when I looked over my shoulder again- all cleared ! but elephant neither slows nor does it show
any signs of leaving us. And as I expected, it's getting closer to Mr Chandrashekhar, the oldest of our lot.
A deep sense of helplessness was growing into me. But there was this younger chap running closer to him in front though he could have run faster, and now and then he's also shouting full-throat at the elephant to stop, trying his luck, but to no avail. Some more frenetic paces.. and there's another tree trunk lying low across the track.. when I just cleared it, saw someone in front fully airborne, tumbling after hitting some stumps.. I swerved my head to back again.. 'OH NO' I let out an involuntary loud guttural yell.. stopped and turned back.. felt terribly, miserably helpless.. the furious beast within its trunk's striking distance,
Mr Chandrashekhar, stumbling on that tree trunk hit the ground face down, literally bit the dust.. he lay motionless.. as though he had lost all hope to survive..
Its trunk almost touched his back before he fell.. and now, just one more step, and it would
have stepped on to him, but instead came to a halt !.. just at that very moment it raised the trunk and trumpeted disconcertingly, and in the most mysterious move, turned to its side as if something else has caught its attention and hurried back, turned right and went off the jeep track fast disappearing into the woods..
Henceforth, I'd hesitate to refer to a pachyderm as a 'Gentle-Giant':-)
I was so weighed down by the gravity of the situation, helplessness, sunken in the thought of an imminent tragedy.. that though holding camera in hand thru the chase, I didn't think of lifting it and firing a shot- only a bravado stunt would have made me do that. Even when I stopped and turned back to see him lying still with the black brute coming to a halt next to him, the overpowering poignancy made me forget about my camera completely !.
We've been chased for about 150m.. Breathing heavily, I walked upto Mr Chandrashekhar,
by now sitting up dazed, but contented to be 'still alive and unscathed !'.. still holding his camera in one hand and a lens on the other. I took the lens and gave a hand to get up..
There's a muddy mark at the back of his Tshirt- the elephant's trunk-print pattern !.
Only his legs are hurt and could limp back with some difficulty, happy that it's
the fallen tree-trunk which inflicted the injury, and not the elephant-trunk !
Nobody could convincingly explain why the elephant turned back- Theorizing...
Within a short while on our way back, met two of the trackers fully drenched, in dripping wet dress. They were walking along another jeep track nearby and that elephant later chased them also, and these two escaped by jumping into the river, Sachariya, the third tracker ran somewhere else, not yet seen around.
Midway back to the base camp, the jeep came for a lift after officials heard about the incident.
Everyone was talking about the unbelievably close escape and the elephant inexplicably leavingthe scene without harming anyone, though till the end it had looked irritated and determined to 'punish' intruders into its territory, and not just to chase them off..
<.<.Commander
That puzzling behaviour in the final scences of the chase, was haunting me even after my return to Bangalore. Looking for explanations, I turned to the book in Luke's collection, "Elephant Days and Nights" by Raman Sukumar of Center for Ecological Studies, at IISc. An expert in Asian Elephants, he has written about his 10 years, researching chasing and being chased by elephants in the forests of South India.
I did find the section detailing all the different kinds of threat displays and chases that
he observed, and there was this behavioural description of the kind of chase matching what we
went through- except for that very inexplicable denouement of the action-packed drama. In his observations, he mentioned that such a chase usually ends when it wraps the victim by its trunk and delivers deadly sledge-hammering blows !!
Two weeks after the survey, our clique of photography-n-birding aficionados decided to
head south to Thattekkad. I didn't think twice to join em. rang up the Asst Wildlife Warden again, this time with a request to arrange for accommodation for 6 guys, preferrably inside the forest. He agreed, to arrange either the tree-top watch-tower. but hesitated to add that after the survey, the elephants are in really wild mood, and in two weeks there has been many incidents of elephants chasing the trackers and so general visitors are not allowed in the areas where the elephants range.
But in our case, he sounded obliging to make arrangements, seemingly taking it for granted
that we are somewhat serious birders, and not the general merry-making noisy buncha tourists.
After reaching the sanctuary office, when deciding about where to camp for the night,we were bombarded with more jumbo-mischief tales, and were warned of possible risks.
The excitement in the air ballooned and we decided to spend the night on the watch-tower itself, right in the elephant country.
Manoj trying a hand at Canoeing on R. Periyar >.>.
That night, when relaxing atop the machaan after dinner, listening to Sachariya's tales,
he touched upon that by-now-famous chase on the last day of the survey when we had gone to
watch Frogmouth. I probed him furthur.. and.. the mystery of the miraculous escape was slowly unfolding.. ! He and two other trackers were walking down another jeep track which forked off from the one we (Eldhose and company) took towards Frogmouth nest.
After hearing the trumpets and commotion of the chase from a distance, Sachariya and friends ran towards our direction taking the trails through the thickets. Once he saw the rushing rouge, started shouting expletives full-throat, one of his ploys to divert the attention of the animal. Though none of us being chased sensed their presence since they were not visible.
Apparently, his voice startled the elephant, since that came from behind it- the area it thought it had cleared of intruders. Most striking about this is the timing, when it was about to strike Mr Chandrashekar down.. it stopped, turned away. It chased Sachariya and friends later and that's when two of 'em plunged into the river.
After listening to all the elephant stories, the next morning's trek inside the forest was
interestingly different outing, as every few meters we watched out listened for any trace of herds nearby; I also pressed my olfactory senses into non-stop service, expecting to catch that familiar jumbo scent wafting through the trees. Though there was too much expectation to spot a herd, all we cound find was just elephant-droppings all over our route.
When relaxing on the rocky clearing inside the forest, someone spotted sloth-bear scats on the
rocks. I turned to examine it trying to see if I can get any clue to its foodhabits, and I could gather that it had a very very fibrous vegetarian diet with some beetles and bugs thrown in. Others were amused at my scatological leaning. In fact I's more interested to see if there
are any traces of honeycomb, as in the all the bear stories from childhood, that's what the bears were always after.
Forest Calote, surveying the intruders to its domain, seems to be asking-"Who Goes There?":).
It has good camouflage for the rocky habitat, skin texture looks like the rock surface .>.>
The slight morning drizzle and cloudiness spoiled our chances of great birding as they were
not coming out and active like in the morning sun. Though we all enjoyed the trek, we came
out not-so-satisfied; except for the flock of ducks in a pond -about 500 Lesser Whistling Teals and other assorted group including Pintails and Gargeney- which took to noisy flight in 3 or 4 groups and kept circling for 10-15 minutes, there were not much action around. I could get a glimpse of this real impressive beauty, a Pied-Crested Cuckoo.
I came back lighter, literally- losing my sleeping bag- and otherwise, since I don't
have to lose sleep over the mystery of the chase, now that it's just history.
