Elephants and tourists conflict

Manas National Park straddles the border of Bhutan and India, and is meant to provide refuge for elephants (Elephas maximus indicus). When you plan a trip to this place, you never think about safety. Normally you keep a watch on your surroundings, and give enough space to elephants. They are also careful around humans, and you can see them trying to gauge your movements, making a move only when you halt sufficiently far away. But accidents happen. Fortunately our accident did not result in anything but adrenaline on either side.

Our only excuse for creating this mess was that everyone on the jeep was very keen to get to a rest stop. I assume that the other two jeeps involved in this accident were also in a similar frame of mind. So we did not notice a bunch of elephants coming into the clearing where a forest guard post and the toilets were. It was a big herd. There were five or six adults, perhaps four or five babies, and a few sub-adults. After the initial panicky response of the elephants, as the herd began to settle into a defensive arrangement, one of the jeeps started its engine too early. The elephants were spooked but retreated as the forest guards advanced making a lot of noise to create a route out for us. The video ends as we started to move. But then the elephants made a mock charge to establish a boundary. I could guess what was happening, but whether it is mock charge or not, you are still tense when two elephants come rushing towards you. Fortunately, with much shouting and bellowing, the two groups established a frontier and we could drive off safely, and the forest guards could retreat into their post. Unfortunately, I could not take a video of this part of the encounter with all the bouncing of a jeep across the clearing in the forest.

The long experience of the guards and the local drivers was crucial in getting out of this jam. When you are in a tight spot they are very good, but its not an experience I would like to repeat. I’m sure that goes for the herd and the guards too. The solution is to always be on the lookout. Vigilia aeterna pretium salutis, as Cato the Elder may have said, instead of the much simpler phrase eternal vigilance is the price of safety.