World Elephant Day 2025: Looking out for the gentle giants
Honouring unsung heroes
Gaj Gaurav Awards were instituted to seven field staff and mahouts from across India in recognition of their work in elephant conservation. S Karthikeyan, Forest Guard and M Murali Anti-Poaching Watcher, both from Dharmapuri Circle, were the awardees from Tamil Nadu. Thirty-four-year-old Murali has been actively involved in risky elephant rescue operations across Forest Circles, while Karthikeyan was honoured for patrols along areas of man-elephant conflict to monitor animal movement. In April this year, he rescued injured elephants at the Cauvery North Wildlife Sanctuary.
'Elephants entering human habitation tend to fall into open wells when agitated, especially at night when they try to raid crops,' says 32-year-old Karthikeyan. He has observed this up close in villages on the fringes of forests in Hosur. 'Some people light firecrackers to chase elephants that venture into their fields,' he says, adding: 'There are several open, abandoned wells in the region, and the animals get hurt when they slip and fall.' He recalls the recent rescue of one such elephant by his team of ten. 'I urge people living near forests to enclose wells with walls for the sake of elephants,' he says.
With love, from Gudalur
Gudalur-based socio-environmental enterprise The Real Elephant Collective, known for crafting life-size elephants made of lantana, had displayed a handful of elephants constructed by tribal people from villages in and around Gudalur in the Nilgiri hills. But what stood apart was a small collection of animal and bird miniatures, done with impeccable attention to detail.
'We have 16 pieces as part of the collection, including five birds, eight animals, and trees and bushes,' says Tariq Thekaekara from the Collective. They have been sculpted by hand with wood from Senna Spectabilis, an invasive plant that poses a major threat to the Nilgiri biosphere, removed with support from the Forest Department.
While the team's lantana elephants have travelled the world — they have been displayed in the UK, US, apart from several cities in India — they now want to carve birds and animals that are not as popular. These include the Nilgiri tahr, Nilgiri marten, spotted deer, jungle fowl, Indian giant squirrel, hornbill, among others. Hand-carved by tribal women using simple tools, these are animals and birds the people grew up seeing.
The miniatures will initially be available for sale in all the Forest Department eco shops in the Nilgiris, Mudumalai, Bandipur and Wayanad, and can also be purchased online soon. While the women are now working from the Collective's office in Gudalur, they will eventually have the freedom to make the figurines from home.
For enquiries, email info@therealelephant.com
Elephant tales
Kirti Vardhan Singh, Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, released An Ancient Bond: The Elephant Whisperers of Mudumalai, a coffee table book by Tarsh Thekaekara featuring photos of elephants and their mahouts, and the children's book The Lost Elephant and the Soul Tree published by Westland's Red Panda.
Suitable for children aged eight to 12, The Lost Elephant and the Soul Tree was inspired by the author's reportage across elephant camps in the Western Ghats. Little Girl, LG for short, a mischievous elephant calf gets separated from her herd when they cross a tea plantation. She ends up in an elephant camp in the forest for abandoned and problematic elephants, and must summon every ounce of courage to find her way back home.
Her only hope is the Soul Tree, a living, breathing portal into faraway landscapes. With the help of two feisty old elephants and a fierce tusker with a tender heart, she sets out to find it on a full-moon night, braving dark jungles and predators on the lurk.
The story will take readers into the workings of an elephant herd, introducing issues such as disappearing forests, man-animal conflict, and elephant behaviour. Set in the dense sholas of Tamil Nadu, it has magic and adventure, and is an ode to the many steely elephant matriarchs who would die to protect their herd.
Available at book stores and online.
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