How would you feel when you are close to a herd of wild elephants which are just inches away from you? Oh wait. I forgot to mention two essential pieces of facts as well. You are in an actual forest inhabited with tigers, bisons. cobras etc. and such a situation happens to you in the middle of the night. Even if you were to imagine it, the thoughts of being trampled and tossed around like a rag doll by the Tuskers is something not any sane person would want to do in their wildest dreams. Right? Wrong. All the worst case scenarios put together happened to me and other fellow trekkers on that fateful, eventful, shocking and dreadful night.
It started when I bought the necessary tickets to the major places and activities of interest @ Thekkady like Bamboo Rafting, Border Hiking etc. How did I acutely remember the names of the activities? Simple. Google is the secret of my energy! The one expedition which I was eagerly anticipating with relish was to see a full-grown tiger in the wilderness as I was in the Periyar Sanctuary. Sadly, the Tiger Trail was beyond the scope of my budget then and I had to keep it for some other day at some other place in the future. So, the first in the itinerary was to delve into the hearts of the jungle from its periphery during the night time trek. I was told that there would be some other trekkers along with the ranger and his marksman.
The D-time arrived and I was promptly at the appointed time near the gates. As the minutes ticked and trickled, two foreigners, who had also booked for the high octane and action-packed indelible memory, arrived and we were ushered into the ranger's office where we were waiting for other people to join this variegated group embarking on an adventure to be on par with the thrills and chills of The Jurassic Park.
After exchanging our pleasantries with each other, we strode joyfully and blissfully into the serene night whose air was occasionally punctuated with the sounds, shrills and noises of insects and deers. As we were constantly chatting, the ranger laid out the ground rules to behave in a feral environment especially during the nights and was completely amused by the fact that we were oblivious to the lurking dangers and imminent risks that we were undertaking on the trek. Once when the seriousness of understanding was put forth by him, all of us adhered to his words with the only sound that could be heard then was our own breath. The ranger was confidently unequivocal when he said that we would be very lucky even if we saw one single elephant. Little did he know that we were on the brink of a grave disaster.
Everything was sunshine, okay moonshine!, until his marksman heard the footsteps of an elephant. We had no idea how he was able to comprehend it but the explanation he gave when I asked him how he was able to recognize the footstep as an elephant was that every animal has a distinct thud and also the evidence that an elephant leaves in its trails. Asking us to stay put while he scans the environment, our ranger, in the meantime, had spotted a bison and asked us to take our look at it. The bison was staring at us and if it weren't for a river between us, it may have charged upon us. That was the moment I scowled that I didn't own a DSLR as my mobile cam was as blind as a rhino in the dark. One of the Ground rule - No flashes! So, my camera was as useful as a chocolate teapot.
Meanwhile, the markman hastily asked us to leave our spots as quiet as a mouse because a baby elephant with its mother was hiding in plain sight a few trees in front of us. We had no idea when we started to run as there was a sudden movement behind us. The ranger and his associate knew where they were going and all their experience was tested then. My fellow trekkers and I were complete amateurs who had no idea of living or being in a wild forest under the moonlights with elephants in the background.
We ran helter-skelter straying away from the planned route into the unknown territories where one wrong step would have hurled us headlong into the rocky landmass. The air was suddenly tense. We heard some footsteps behind us. Not wanting to know whether it was a deer or a jungle cat or an elephant, our single-minded attention was to move away from the vicinity at the earliest as the ranger had warned us earlier while explaining the ground rules that baby elephants with mothers are more dangerous than Tuskers and she would do anything to protect her offspring. The land was loose and rocky. We were beating a hasty retreat to safer grounds by following our guides.
After what seemed like eternity, all of us were unharmed and heavily panting on the long grasses from where we could see the most beautiful sight in the world - A herd of 7-10 wild elephants including a Tusker along with their children were softly drinking the chilled water and the baby elephants were happily playing in it. The ranger asked us to be still until they left as any sudden act from our end might result in the beasts to ram into us like a Godzilla onto a hut! Drinking water to their heart's content, they left one by one and finally us as well.
A night not to forget - My big mouth did not keep shut and questioned the relieved ranger as to why we had to run like a hare when he had the guns on his shoulders. His curt response was that though the gunshot might scare away the animal, ours was a unique situation wherein we encountered a mother with her cub and anything could have happened if he had fired the bullet in the air. When small insects began their atrocities on us, it was time for us also to leave into open ground where the terrain was firm and tested and tried. It was then I had a bout of self-realization and tremendous insight that it is always better to leave the animals to their own good in their natural environment as we were the strangers intruding upon their privacy though we meant no harm to them.
The rest of the journey was uneventful and we were able to see glimpses of deers and cats walking and strolling as if the entire world was theirs and time was at their feet. We reached where we started after an hour from the spot where we were all mesmerized the gigantic gentleness of the elephants. They say "Life's a full circle" . In our case, it was full of twisty straight lines, curves and parabolas!
X---To Be Concluded---X
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