Elephant Encounter
The day doesn't always go as planned. During my time at Dhikala zone at Corbett National Park I was looking for tigers, as usual. It was tough going as the temperature in April was getting into the 40ºC region and it was making us hot, tired and lethargic. The tigers were proving difficult to find probably because of the high temperatures. I have come to the conclusion that the tigers are more intelligent than I give them credit for. We the tourist / photographer roar around the zone covering miles and miles, getting bounced around and covered in dust, on the off chance of seeing a tiger. I’m convinced that the tigers take it in turn to step out and be seen to slow down the noise and mayhem caused by the vehicles and to give the other tigers some peace and quiet.
This morning I was on the other side of the river and had noted the unusually high numbers of elephant and the amount of elephant herds. We often had to stop to allow the elephants to do what they wanted, after all they had the right of way and whose going to argue with 5 tons of bulk that has its mind set on the lush green grasses on the other side of your vehicle.
As we moved off after yet another delay caused by elephants blocking the way forward, we headed onto the track along the side of the forest. We were with another two vehicles and all turned left together and suddenly all hell broke loose. We didn't see what was happening at first then realised that a very large bull elephant didn't like us being on his track and he charged the vehicles. You’ll be surprised at how quickly a 5 ton elephant can bear down on you. Elephants can reach a top speed of 15 mph and believe me when they start to charge from only meters away its one of those moments where your heart stops. The drivers fast reactions were all that saved us from being turned over by this raging bull. We found ourselves clinging onto anything we could and trying to protect the cameras while taking a detour through the dense forest to get away from the bull. The other two vehicles also disappeared over the horizon in different directions. The bull eventually settled down and we were able to resume our tiger hunt. It’s a question I often have to ask myself, ‘who is hunting who’.
