An elephant tale from Cherkkara Estate - Talapuzha

How many elephants are there in the pictures above? Is it only two or three? Even I thought same. Later we found that it is a herd of elephants. They were 8 in numbers including the new born baby. My friend; P K Rajesh sir called me up and said that there are elephants in the forest next to Cherkkara tea estate near Thalapuzha. Mr. Rajesh is staying very next to this tea estate along with his brother who is a staff member of this estate.

Mr. Rajesh asked me not to miss this opportunity since he knows I am crazy about photography, trekking and all. He too loves trekking and mountaineering. I went to the place along with Mr. Bennison who is doing business in Mananthavady. Mr. Bestson who is working in L&T InfoTech – Mysore and younger brother of Bennison also joined us. We three reached Mr. Rajesh’s house and he prepared tea for all of us. Later we set towards Kurisumala – the mountain nearby the Cherkkara estate where elephants freely roam around.

On the way we got information from people working in the estate that those wild elephants are there very near to the estate, and we need not climb the mountain. I had been to the top of Kurisumala twice, once with Mr. Rajesh and once along with my friend Ahammed Shameer; my engineering classmate and who owns WWW.OPENHAT.ORG

Click and enlarge the picture to see the baby elephant behind the legs of the big elelphants

We walked carefully into the tea estate. To adjacent hills formed a small stream in between, the hill which walked through belonged to the tea estate and the hill opposite belonged to the forest. We took each step so silently so that we won’t end up all of a sudden in front of an elephant. We dared to walk and go since we were pretty sure that we will be able to spot an elephant from a safe distance from the tea estate. We found the tree branches on both sides of the stream crushed and understood that we are very near to the elephants. After walking twenty minutes we started hearing sounds of branches of trees breaking. Yes, we spotted the elephant herd in the thick forest. Initially we thought that there were only two or three, but later found out that it consisted of 8 elephants including the new born baby.

We did not actually spot the baby elephant, but the employees of the estate told us that the elephant herd was there since last two weeks, after the birth of the baby elephant. The baby elephant was well protected surrounded by other elephants and the thick forest. In order to see the baby, we had to go very near to the herd which amounts high risk. Elephants turn to be much more dangerous when there is a baby elephant among the herd. We gave up the plan of going further near.

But later when we reached back and transferred the images to a PC and viewed it in full size, we saw the baby elephant between the other in the picture above. Yes, what those staff members told is true, there was a baby elephant. Just one hour before we reached the location, the herd was on top of Kurisumala and we could have taken better pictures if the animals were still there. But some people who went up to the mountain frightened the animals by shouting and drum sounds, the elephants came down and hided in the thick forest.

Mr. Rajesh watching the elephants mazing on the other hill; the elphants can be only seen when the picture is taken zoomed in

Elephant passages which lengths hundreds of kilometers and spans over one or two districts are now blocked to a great amount by human interference. These passages are very much needed for the survival of these gigantic animals. When human population exploded, these forests are partitioned and the land in between are now converted to farm lands and residential areas. More over, humans cut roads through these forests and later they built up electric fences on both sides of the forest roads. As a result once again the elephant passages got cut shortened.

Elephants started entering the farm lands and plantations which belonged to the jungle once. Humans prevented it by digging trenches around the forest. Now it is better to say that these animals are caged in small forests. One other danger these animals are facing are humans allowing the cattle to enter the forest and feed on the forest grass. Cattle feed on these grasses on such a way that it won’t be grown again the next year. More over lot of germs spreading diseases get spread from these cattle through their mouth to the grass and then to the wild animals who feeds on the grass. Hope the government will make the law more animal friendly before these creatures become extinct.