A flying road for Asia's embattled elephants
By Raja Murthy
RISHIKESH, northern India - Raja, a 19-year-old elephant with grimy ivory
tusks, sways morosely from side to side while standing chained under an
asbestos-roofed shed in the Rajaji National Park, a last major refuge of the
Asiatic elephant roaming the Himalayan foothills in eastern India.
An air of torment surrounds young Raja, even as he fussily picks at his late
morning snack of sugar cane, part of the 200 kilograms of vegetarian food and
100 liters of water that the elephant needs as its daily diet.
"Raja is moody, troubled and often angry," elephant keeper Riyas
Khan explained to me on a cloudy Tuesday morning. "He cannot be trusted with
people, and is often disturbed."
Raja has every reason to be disturbed. He was part of a family of six wild
elephants struck in a train accident seven years ago on the rail track cutting
through the wildlife reserve. Raja was the sole survivor. Forest officials
rescued the baby orphan, and he lives with two other rescued and now tamed
young elephants adjacent to the Rajaji National Park entrance gate.
To prevent similar tragedies from harming the Asiatic elephant, among the 5,000
endangered species struggling to survive in a human-dominated planet, India's
wildlife and national highway officials are planning the world's first
exclusive flyover for elephants.
The proposed US$13 million flyover across the Rajaji National Park would
prevent elephant deaths, say senior Forest Department officials, a frequent
tragedy as elephants cross the highway and railway track running through the
wildlife reserve or run into the traffic between the nearby pilgrim towns of
Haridwar and Rishikesh.
The flyover will feature two corridors, each 1.2 kilometers long and 100 meters
wide, and is expected to be ready in nine months, soon after India's Supreme
Court consents to the plan from the National Highway Authorities of India.
The jumbo flyover is another step towards saving the Asiatic elephant,
scientifically called Elephas Maximus, whose current population is estimated to
be only around 45,000, compared to 600,000 African elephants.
Even though the larger African elephant population has also dramatically shrunk
from about five million between the 1930s and 1940s, wildlife conservationists
say the African jumbo (Loxodonta Africana) does not face the threat of
extinction as seriously as its smaller Asian cousin.
Possible dangers include poachers murdering elephants for their ivory, which
sells in the illegal market for US$1,000 a tusk. Elephants also run into
conflict with encroaching villagers across eastern India, from Uttarakhand to
Chattisgarh and Assam states. It's a violent, vicious cycle with fatalities on
both sides.
Villagers complain of elephants ravaging their crops and fields, and the jumbos
are angry at having their traditional habitat invaded by humans. Electric
fences, as well as frightened villagers lighting fires and beating drums to
scare away elephants at night, have limited success.
India's elephant flyover could bring greater peace to the Rajaji National Park
area that covers the three districts of Dehradun, Haridwar and Pauri Garhwal of
Uttarakhand state.
An estimated 26,000 Asiatic elephants can be found across India, while a
possible equal and shrinking number roam in forests and sanctuaries in
Thailand, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bhutan, China,
Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
From my base in the pleasant Green Hills Cottage in Rishikesh, I ventured to
explore the terrain of the world's first elephant flyover to help save the
Asiatic elephant.
India's Rajaji National Park is one of 24 major wildlife reserves in India.
Just as the Corbett National Park, 225kms away, is famous for its tiger
population, this reserve is known for its high Asiatic elephant population. The
825 square kilometer area also houses 23 other mammal species including tigers,
leopards and the Himalayan bear, as well as 315 bird species.
The 25-year-old Rajaji National Park, named after independent India's second
governor-general, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1878-1972), reflects the urgency
to preserve the Asiatic elephant. In fact, the reserve has 10 million-year-old
fossils of 50 species of elephants. Only one of those 50 elephant species now
survives as the Asiatic elephant.
I took the 19km route to the Rajaji National Park entrance near Haridwar, one
of the oldest living cities of the world. Next year, over 3 million pilgrims
will take the same road as part of the Kumbh Mela, an ancient religious
gathering of millions held every three years, when pilgrims take a ritualistic
dip in the river Ganges.
An estimated 3 million people would be trampling along the Haridwar-Rishikesh
road during the next Kumbh Mela in 2010, and the elephant flyover hopes to
avoid conflict during this mass human-elephant movement.
The busy Haridwar-Rishikesh road can produce surprises, from Western
renunciates on motorbikes to, as on this day, a white-haired, saffron-robed
ascetic carrying a white cloth bag with a picture of Tarzan emblazoned on it -
the lord of the African jungles posing in his legendary chest-thumping battle
cry "Kreegah! Tarzan Bundalo!"
"Wild elephants cause a lot of trouble on the road at night," said the driver
of the shared tempo-rickshaw I took for part of the journey, from under his cap
with "Harley Davidson" emblazoned on it.
At the Haridwar Dam checkpoint guarding the restricted bypass road to the
Rajaji National Park, forest guard Anil Aryan expressed his approval of the
elephant flyover. "It's very necessary," he said, sporting a jacket with
“Pierre Cardin” emblazoned on the back. "The flyovers would help the
approximate 3,700 elephants living here, as well as elephant deaths from
railway accidents."
After buying a cup of tea brewed over a wood fire, I chose to walk to the
Rajaji National Park 3.5km away, instead of waiting for transport. The peace
and quiet of the lonely forest road was broken only by bird song, the drone of
insects and the occasional vehicle or cyclist passing by.
A wooden-barricaded check-post announced my arrival at the Rajaji National
Park, with a small cluster of buildings at the entrance, including a reception
area selling entrance tickets, a canteen, a few ramshackle staff residences and
a deserted forest guest house.
A few jeep drivers offering $17 safari-rides milled about. The $4 two-hour
elephant ride into the reserve was stopped when the beloved 70-year-old female
elephant Arundhati died in 2007, after fracturing her leg.
"Business is slow, even though this is the tourist season," said Suresh Chand,
who told me he has been a private guide here for 14 years. "Fewer Western
tourists arrived after the November 26 terrorist strikes in Mumbai. Usually we
see many Americans."
The moody elephant Raja and his two companions instantly attract a group of
five tourists from France, particularly the nine-year-old baby elephant Yogi
who was rescued when found wandering alone lost in the neighboring forests.
Unlike the perhaps misunderstood Raja struggling to come to terms with seeing
his family slaughtered by a train, Yogi is a friendly fellow who amiably offers
his little trunk for “handshakes” with anyone coming near him. Feeling Yogi's
strong, playful jab gives one an idea of the awesome power of an adult
elephant's trunk that can lift 250kgs of weight.
"Yogi is fully trained," explained elephant keeper Riyas Khan. "But Mamta [the
17-year-old third elephant, also rescued as a baby after being found alone in
the forest] is a lazy one. She is stubborn, won't listen to anyone and won't do
any work."
Raja, Mamta and the baby elephant Yogi, who gloriously ignore each other,
represent a 60 million-year history of elephants, compared to our merely
300,000-year-old modern human story.
Local mourning over Arudhati's death played a role in reviving the elephant's
standing as a revered species across Asia. Vinaya (V 1:337-357) of the
Tipitaka, the Pali language record of the Buddha's teachings, narrates how the
elephant Parileyyaka looked after the Buddha, fetching him wild fruits and
water during the Enlightened One's solitary stay in the Parileyya forest during
the monsoon of the 45th year of his life.
Colorful annual elephant festivals are celebrated in many Asian countries, such
as "Thrissur Pooram" in Kerala state and the Jaipur Elephant festival in India,
the ElefantAsia in Laos, Surin Elephant festival in Thailand and the Kandy
Elephant festival in Sri Lanka. The elephant-headed boy god Ganesha is the most
popular deity in India's financial capital Mumbai.
Asiatic elephants can also be clever artists. In 2000, the National Elephant
Institute in Chiang Mai, Thailand established the Elephant Art Gallery, which
displays paintings made by elephants using brush, paint and canvas without any
human aid.
Celebrity elephant artists such as Japatee, donated as a baby elephant by the
Jerusalem Zoo and with a Thai nickname Phlai Ngam meaning "Beautiful
Tusks", does abstract art, while the 16-year-old playful elephant Jojo, ranked
among the top three of the 14 artistic jumbos in Thailand, has had his
paintings sold for thousands of dollars in international art auctions. His
recent artworks include "Angels will Prevail" that sold for $397 and "Colorful
Illusion" that sold for $369.
According to his biographical note, "Jojo is also an accomplished musician, who
plays both the xylophone and the mouth organ, which he blows with his trunk."
Raja, who when as a fully grown Asian bull elephant could be 10 feet tall,
weigh five tons and live to age 60, can be a useful worker, if not a
temperamental artist or musician. World Wildlife Fund, a leading global
conservation group, points out that domesticated elephants are used in South
and Southeast Asia in rugged forestry work, including anti-poaching patrolling.
Riyas Khan, who says his family has trained elephants for many generations,
also approves of the elephant flyover. "It would be a wonderful development for
elephants, killed in many numbers in the railway tracks.”
The two elevated elephant flyovers, each 300 meters wide at the entrances and
600 meters apart, will rise at a gradual slope. The concrete side walls will be
lined with local trees and foliage, to ensure elephants feel at home while
using the flyovers for safe forest crossings.
That elephants in the region are troubled became more evident during the 40km
safari ride I took into the striking terrain of the Rajaji National Park,
through an impressive mixture of open savannah-grasslands, dry river beds that
become gushing torrents during monsoon rains, streams and woodland brooks, sal
forests in lowlands and higher altitude pine forests.
As the cloudy afternoon gave way to a cold, rainy evening, a family of three
elephants rushed to and fro erratically through the forest in the murky gloom,
their trumpeting sounding similar to the forlorn cry of the movie dinosaurs in
Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park series.
One trumpeting elephant suddenly charged out of the darkening forest into the
dusty path of the safari jeep. It had either remembered an urgent appointment
across the path, or was attacking the visitors. The driver Aleem Ali stepped on
the accelerator and sped away. The sudden sight of a fast charging wild
elephant is not for the faint-hearted. "If the elephant appears right ahead on
the road facing the vehicle, there is not much chance of escape," said Aleem.
Yet the Rajaji National Park, protecting elephants and other species from
receiving a Jurassic Park fate, has moments of peace as well. "Sometimes we see
a herd of about 40 elephants quietly moving together," said Aleem Ali. His
elder brother Liaquat had earlier mentioned once seeing an elephant and a tiger
standing peacefully side by side, watching the watchers go by.
The world's first elephant flyovers will promote wildlife and human harmony.
"Even the smaller animals like leopards would be able to use the flyovers,"
said guide Suresh Chand. "Two days ago, we saw a leopard come here near the
gate at around 4:00pm. Wild elephants often come here at night." The elephant
flyover hopes to end such unexpected sightings, and the fear leading to
violence among species.
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