The picnicking elephant

 

Gajraj turned uproariously musth and became disgruntled and disapproving of the human bondage. He broke chains and ropes with immaculate show of hormone-boosted power, and tipsy on love-booze escaped into the forest with his six women—Chameli, Kaveri, Suheli, Pawankali, Kiran and Sulochna. They escaped into the solicitous greenery of the rhino reserved area.

Gajraj is a trained elephant in Dudhwa National Park. Basically he is a nice guy, cordially tagging around the forest officials in fulfillment of his duties, using his power with a well-checked iciness. But on entering the turbulent musth phase, he turned growling and fidgety; became forbiddingly aggressive and broke the shackles for love in free woods.

There are about 25 camp elephants in the national park for tourism, patrolling and conflict management in the zone of human-animal shared boundaries. Ingeniously timing the event he set out on the eve of the Indian Independence Day, making a big statement in favor of unchecked love in free woods.

The pachyderms are stationed at rhino rehabilitation area in Sonaripur range, a pristine 27 sq km expanse of sal and damar trees, nine lakes and mouthwatering grasslands. The area has 46 one-horned rhinos. I think he must have pushed them out of his playground in his state of heightened aggression born of increased hormonal activity in his system.

Gajraj was brought here in 2008 from Jaldapara wildlife sanctuary to keep a watch on the rhinos and patrol the area. He was ten then. He must have been on quarrelsome terms with Kamalkali because she didn’t go with him on this escapade. Sulochna and Chameli were his childhood friends because they had arrived with him at the park.

Dudhwa tiger reserve officials panicked with the elephants’ disappearance. Free love always meets a hoarsy retort. Love will always have its opponents, so the teams of forest workers, drone cameras and mahouts set out to capture the fugitives. A WWF team also arrived to assist the search operations. The tiger reserve spans an area of 2201 sq km richly imbued with greened freedom. A good space for the tremulous blizzard of elephant love. A zone of solitudinal sweet sighs as opposed to the stinking muck of captivity.

The park shares border with Nepal and if the lovebirds enter the neighboring country, it would be very difficult to get them back because elephants don’t carry passports and Nepal might say they are their elephants. They are spotted after a couple of days. But just two days of love in the woods with his harem aren’t sufficient for Gajraj, so he chases away the rescue teams. The teams kept pursuing them for the next two weeks. He turned his usual well-behaved self after a fortnight of triumphant and unhindered love in the woods. The love-satiated pachyderm was calm now when the rescuers reached him and escorted the runaway king and his six queens back to the camp.