"We had elephants for dinner"

It was a pleasant evening and we got around to knowing the other group staying in the loghut next to ours. There were the usual discussions about the day’s experiences mixed with those of the past. One of our neighbours told us of how he had once stood his ground when confronted by an angered wild boar. The wild boar ofcourse had chickened out when confronted by such an amazing display of courage !! We later named this man the "Wild Boar Man". As we had just about finished dinner, excellently cooked by their maid who happened to be the saviour of our cars from the afternoon gone bye, we heard some rocks being knocked about in the dry stream leading up from the river bed to the path. The elephants were on their way back to the higher reaches of the hills. As the ladies and children quickly retreated into the the rooms, four of us excitedly climbed the steps to our balcony and awaited the arrival of the giants.

Within a few minutes a massive tusker magically appeared out of the shadows around thirty yards down the path. It was the victorious chief, who had fought off a trespassing bull that afternoon, leading the herd. He was really huge and I think we were all wondering at one point whether the elephant pit dug around the loghuts was actually wide enough to keep him out. I don’t think so but I’m glad he didn’t decide to try and find out. One of the other two guys was a lot more "excited" than the rest of us and sat crouched back by the wall of our room. This was our brave wild boar man. Once the leader had gone past after hesitating in his stride once in a while to look in our direction, our friend decided his family downstairs was making too much noise. He went down to quieten them and I think in the process decided he’d had enough excitement for the day and called it quits. His friend followed suit soon after. I wish we could meet them another day to tell them what amazing sights they missed, as a result of that decision.

The two of us sat on, waiting for the night to unfold in the amazing jungle where we had been lucky enough to witness such amazing dramas of the wild world. We watched in awe as one after the other the elephants walked past in the moonlight. Such huge giants and so amazingly silent. That is till they see a tree they think looks appetizing to them. Then it’s a show of obscene brute strength as trees of decent size are snapped in half, with a thunderous clap that rings through the jungle, and munched on for hours on end. Soon the entire herd had gone bye, or so we thought, and all fell silent. There were a few deer calls to our left around 300 - 400 yards away indicating that the local tiger was on the move. We hoped he was heading our way but it was not to be. Once again everything was quiet except for a Night Jar that lives in the tree above the loghuts. It’s amazing how a bird so small can produce a sound loud enough to put many a larger creature to shame.

As the night wore on with nothing out of the ordinary happening, exhaustion began to catch up with us. The occasional yawns became more frequent. We wanted to stay up a while longer. So we decided to take a couple of shifts to keep watch while the other caught a quick twenty minute nap. It turned out to be my chance first and I quickly got into my sleeping bag. I must have dozed off immediately. After what seemed like a maximum of ten minutes I was rudely woken up by a strange sound that can best be described as that of a door creaking open in a horror movie. I opened my eyes to see the door to our room actually creaking open but nobody came through. Confused I softly called out to Pankaj. There was no reply. I quietly put on my boots, not forgetting to first check them for scorpions, and slowly crept out of the door with my torch in hand. I heard a very low voice instructing me to put it off. It was Pankaj who seemed to be frozen in the same position with an open bowl containing noodles, which we’d already cooked before getting invited to the more exciting meal by our neighbours. He asked me to silently hand him the lid which was lying somewhere near my feet. I asked him what was the problem, to which he just said,"Look in front !!". I looked up to get one of the greatest shocks of my entire life.

Standing on the very edge of the pit surrounding the loghuts and leaning forward with their trunks extended straight towards us like pointers, were two elephants. One was a small baby and the other it’s mother. The tip of the mother’s trunk could not have been more than maybe ten metres from us. The baby seemed frantic to get in and even tried crossing the pit with the help of the narrow plank meant for humans to do so. I asked Pankaj if he knew what was going on. He said all he knew was he was feeling hungry and opened the bowl to eat some cold noodles. These two elephants who were walking up the path just then, seemed to have picked up the scent and had been behaving in this odd manner since. I was petrified the baby was going to fall into the pit trying to cross over the plank!! That would definitely bring down the entire herd on us and we would be history. Luckily the mother did not approve of it’s baby’s intentions either and quickly pulled it away. They tried going around the entire place hoping to find a way to get in. Thankfully they couldn’t. We were already having visions of being found next morning sitting in the middle of a pile of cement blocks and wooden planks. After making a few unsuccessful attempts, they trundled back down towards the river. We resumed breathing and quickly shut the bowl of noodles and dumped it in an airtight bag.

The two elephants had been gone only a couple of minutes when we heard the baby yell. They were somewhere down by the river. Then there was the sound of another elephant. It sounded almost like a child being scolded by it’s parent. After close to ten minutes, we detected some movement under the tree that stood at the corner where the dry stream met the road, after which the path turned right and out of sight. It was the baby again ! Then came the mother too. They walked slowly up the path. The baby’s head actually hung low and it didn’t seem too happy. In a rebellious mood, it decided to pick up a stone and put it in it’s mouth. The mother quickly took a step forward and actually put her trunk in the babies mouth. She took the stone out and flung it aside. Luckily not in our direction as the force of throw sent the projectile crashing through the bushes by the side. The baby once again stopped in front of the huts. The mother also hesitated. They stayed in that frozen position quite a while and we wondered what they were planning to do. We didn’t need to wait long for the explanation as from around the same bend by the tree, came the tallest elephant I had ever seen until then. We had absolutely no doubt that if he wanted he could easily step over the pit supposedly dug to save us from him. He slowly ambled up to the other two. The mother then nudged the little one form behind and the three of then began a slow march together. Just then Pankaj decided to take a look at them through a pair of binoculars, which although they were not meant to, provided excellent vision at night. It was a move that gave us some very tense moments of our life.