Living with elephants
In case you were wondering, I’m still alive and kicking. It just has been hectic last the few months and have not had time to write things down.
I’m currently working on a small documentary film with Anand Kumar on elephants and conflict in a plantation landscape (Anamalais) in the Western Ghats. Elephants use this landscape–the tea estates, the coffee, the swamps and riverine vegetation, and the remnant forests–as part of their annual ranges. However, every year, between September and February, these elephants spend a substantial part of their time out of the surrounding reserves and in the plantations. The mix of swamps, rivers, forest fragment which are surrounded by tea estates and human settlements have a lot of juicy secondary growth of vegetation, lots of grass and many perennial water sources which they find irresistible (I think) in an otherwise dry period of the year. They occasionally raid food godowns to get at rice, salt, etc., and in the process come in contact with people. There have been occasional deaths of people over the decades and most have been because of accidental and sudden encounters with them in the night. The purpose of the documentary is to build positive attitudes of people towards elephants and also highlight things to do when elephants are around in order to minimize conflict. The film is being done in collaboration with NCF and is supported by The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, Sanisoft and Canon.
“Conflict” is a funny word and it means different things for different people. There is some real conflict with elephants and then a large part is perceived. Like the iphone 4 antinegate scandal, the people who complain the most are the ones who are not directly affected. The most amazing thing I discovered was that the attitudes of people whose very houses the elephants break once in a while, are very tolerant of the elephants and their needs. They like them and some are even happy to have them around. It is really the people of the upper classes that complain a lot about the elephants, who are frankly, affected very little directly by the elephants.
In the process of filming these elephants, I have had the privilege of following one particular herd. Its a herd with 6 large elephants and one small calf. The older ones are named ‘Smart Female’ and ‘Step Ear’. I’ll document my journey and days spent with these elephants in the upcoming posts.
I so agree with the interpretation of the word “conflict” – think its primarily insecurity, indifference and ignorance that leads to the attitude of these people you refer to..am looking forward to the series..(btw, couldnt get to Valparai, tho was close as Athirampally Falls ..)
Hi Kalyan ,
Happy to see your post after such a long long time . Was checking out every now and then to see if had posted anything and what you were up to . Good to know that you are alive and kicking !!!
Comming to the “conflict” part , I agree with your view . In fact I got the same response from the Local People when I interacted with them during one of my treks around BR Hills .
They had a very compassionate view about the Elephants , only the attitude of the
” important people ” of the villages were the opposite .
Totally Agree.
Good stuff dude. Take care and have a good time. 🙂
Cool kalyan… look forward to the film and the photos from this documentary….
nice post.
btw, Oru photo potrukalam…. (was expecting a photo)
its been long time since we have seen a photo.
Hi
Introduced to the site by Nitin. Excellent work. Keep it up. Enjoyed all the photographs.
was waiting for ur updates.. uplaod some pics of ur trip plz..
It is really the people of the upper classes that complain a lot about the elephants, who are “frankly, affected very little directly by the elephants.” It’s something new to us on man-animal conflicts.
Looking forward to the pictures. 🙂
Wonderful read kalyan, might have been a wonderful experience in the field, all the best for all your works, eagerly waiting to read the documentary
Your schedule must be hectic otherwise we would have had some posts long before this. Do send us a picture or two to keep us going
I disagree. Are you aware that sometime ago, “poor” villagers in Assam beat up an elephant calf to death?
Hi Kalyan,
Great to see you post and looking forward to see more posts and pictures of the herd that you are following. I hope your work raises awareness and is instrumental in reducing human conflict with these great beasts.
That’s fantastic, Kalyan! And thank you for the insight into the nuances of the conflict. I shall eagerly look forward to your documentation!
Santosh
Dear Rajul
I was curious to read comments on the Kalyan’s movie during my occasional visit to his site. I found that Mr. Rajul comment on Kalyan’s statement sounded interesting. Rest of the people responses were more or less in agreement with the Kalyan’s views. In this context, I thought I would share my opinion with you all. Mr. Rajul comment is true for some parts of Asia. From the context of many parts in southern India, people have been generally tolerant towards elephants. This could be due to strong cultural and religious integration of ‘Elephant God’ in the life style of people coupled with fear of law which may not be the case in most parts of north eastern states in India. Ofcourse, this cannot be generalized to all places. Psychologists have indicated that individuals behave differently when they are in groups, mostly dominated by the irrational thinking and hightened emotions, a typical psyche of mob behaviour. Generally human psyche is violent which sometimes takes an unacceptable form if not controlled by various extraneous social factors. We have lost many elephants besides human lives even in south India too as a result of conflict. Rich people (whatever sense we define) are not severely affected by elephants but make loud noises either in respective state assembly, public forums, or in the designated official meetings. On the other side, a poor/common man and desperate elephants have no choice to voice their genuine opinion being heard by many of us.
The question remains with all us is that have we understood the conflict in clear terms after 30 years of talking about human-wildlife conflicts? If so, why haven’t come out with possible solutions. Good to know that this film tries to document some of the pressing conservation issues based on understanding of dynamics between people and elephants and contribute whatever little possible to promote human-elephant coexistence in a small area in the Anamalai hills.
If people who visit this site to read about elephant documentation, could express their constructive frank opinion and views that would help in fine tuning conservation efforts. After all, we are trying to attain the same goal on different routes.
regarding the people’s responses to the elephants – I agree wholeheartedly. I stay in Palakkad and there are quite a few of these transgressions by the elephants happening quite often. The farmers living on the fringes of the forests are affected the most – but, till date I’ve not seen any of them take on the animals or try to harm them in anyway. All their anger is always directed at the officials either the forest department or the other administrators. Thats very positive and, touchwood, let it remain that way
Praveen
Hello Team,
When we talk about transgressions by Elephants, its also necessary to talk about transgressions by us humans :)… In the last 60 odd years since independence, how much of forest cover has been lost? This is nothing but transgressions on their territories by us, and we end up accusing wild animals that know no man-made boundaries, of transgression.
Goutham