Elephant Love To Walk All Pages

Elephants Love to Walk Bulbul Sharma Bulbul Sharma is an artist, author and art teacher.

She has published numerous books for adults and children.

She conducts art and storytelling workshops for special needs children.

PREFACE Bulbul Sharma’s love affair with nature, art and writing has seen her authoring several books in the past based on the natural world. Her ‘Grey Hornbills: Nature Rambles in Delhi’ and the ‘Book of Indian Birds for Children’ are examples of this love. She writes with a spontaneity and passion that comes with a writing style of putting her heart onto paper in one uninterrupted session. “Writing is not a cerebral process for me. When I read the critics’ interpretations, I wonder, did I really write this?” she once told an interviewer.

Bulbul has written with birds as her main characters in many of her books. How wonderful, that she has turned now to elephants. In ‘Elephants Love to Walk’, Bulbul has woven a simple story of a young elephant’s first rambles in a world full of the wondrous creations of nature and one particular creation that is not as wondrous as it should be. “Gaju’s mother often told him ‘We have to be careful of one creature. He is small, has only two legs and no tail’”, Bulbul writes of man. That is a magnificent vision of humankind as an elephant would have imagined. She then goes on to talk of a hunter who tries to ensnare the young calf. Poaching is a recurrent issue that threatens elephants in India. However habitat loss and the inability of elephants to access their former habitats because of the roads, railways, villages and agricultural fields that we have laid out across their lands is a much larger threat.

In bringing out this book in time for the Gaj Yatra (a public campaign to celebrate India’s National Heritage Animal), Bulbul has contributed to the Wildlife Trust of India’s long standing ambition to secure all the elephant corridors of India. Through this delightful story full of charming illustrations, she has encapsulated the message of conservation of elephant corridors for children.

“Gaju knew he had to be constantly alert as they walked from one forest to another just like their ancestors had done for millions of years. They did not want to harm humans. They just wanted to get to their new feeding grounds. Maybe one day some kind humans would build a safe passage for elephants”, she writes.

Maybe one day, indeed. And we, like Gaju and his mother and the evanescent nature sprite Bulbul Sharma, wait for that day as well.

Vivek Menon Founder and Executive Director Wildlife Trust of India

THE SUN WAS SO STRONG that Gaju’s ears were burning and he moved closer to his mother. His mother, regal and huge, cast a large circle of cool shade by her side.

She was the biggest female elephant of the herd and everyone respected her.

Gaju and his mother were walking with the herd to the other side of the forest, where there was fresh green grass.

“How far is it now?” asked Gaju in a bad tempered groan. “Not far. Just a few more meadows to cross” said his mother flapping her huge ears.

“But you said that hours ago” he muttered dragging his front foot in the muddy earth. The other elephants laughed and walked ahead, their heavy feet leaving deep footprints on the ground.

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Elephants love walking and have been doing so for millions of years. They love eating too. Once they have finished eating the green plants in one part of the forest, they move on to another part. This way the forest can grow new plants again for the elephants to eat the next time they come around. Clever!

Gaju was four years old and he was 5ft high and weighed about 300 kg, but next to his mother and other adults of the herd, he looked very small. His mother was a beautiful grey colour and she weighed an impressive 3 tonnes. Gaju looked up at his mother and gave her a gentle nudge with his trunk. She gave a low rumble in reply. When would he grow up big and strong like his mother? He was fed up of being the smallest in the herd. Gaju snorted. And every time Gaju snorted all the leaves around him get blown away. But wait till you see Gaju’s mother exhale. Then dust swirls up in frenzy, ants flee home, and birds fly away to take shelter on the branches.

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And they walked on, crashing through the forest, often stopping to munch on green leaves, wild berries, twigs, clumps of grass and sometimes an entire plant if it looked tasty. Gaju’s mother could polish off 250kg of green stuff in a day. They left a trail of broken branches all along their path along with huge lumps of dung.

Suddenly they saw a mango tree covered with ripe fruit. The herd stopped. Gaju’s mother plucked a few mangoes with her long trunk and gave them to Gaju. “I can get my own” said Gaju and tried very hard to lift his little trunk to the branches. He managed to break one small mango and proudly showed it to his mother.

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“My clever little son� she said and gave him a gentle nudge with her trunk. Now if you or I had got that nudge we would have fallen down on the ground. But Gaju was pleased and flapped his big ears to show it. Flapping his ears also made him feel much cooler.

Finally they came to a river. One by one all the elephants went in.

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They stood for a while enjoying the cool water after such a long, dusty walk through the forest and then Gaju’s mother pulled in water through her trunk and sprayed it all over Gaju.

“Hey... I can do that too...” he shouted and began snorting and spraying water all over himself. It felt so good to wash all the dust away.

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The other elephants watched and smiled. Gaju was their baby too. When he was born they had stood in a circle guarding him till he could get up on his four feet. All the other females in the herd greeted his birth with loud trumpeting that could be heard all over the forest.

The tiger dozing in his den had heard it, and growled “Well, well, another elephant cub has arrived�. Tigers are a bit scared of elephants and will never attack one.

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Elephants are not afraid of any other animal in the forest and walk everywhere fearlessly.

They know they are the biggest animals in the forest and if some foolish creature wants to pick a fight with them everyone knows who will win.

They are also one of the cleverest animals in the forest and communicate with other members of their herd so well that some scientists believe that they have a language of their own.

Gaju’s mother often told him “We have to be careful of one creature. He is small, has only two legs and no tail. But he has a stick with a ball of fire that he can throw to hurt us badly and even kill us. He is called man� she said.

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Gaju looked around him. The river was flowing and leaping over boulders. He saw a gharial sleeping on the bank. “Have you seen a man?” he asked the gharial. “No. And I do not wish to. Get lost you fat baby elephant. Spoilt my afternoon nap!” he screamed, his long nose quivering with rage.

Then Gaju saw a deer grazing nearby. “Have you seen a man?”

“Oh! No... Oh... No. I better run” cried the deer and leapt up. She ran away into the forest, followed by five hares, one jungle cat and three wild boars. They were all shouting “Run and hide. Run and hide. Man is coming”.

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A monkey, sitting on a tree, was listening to Gaju. “I will take you to see a man, if you like” he said.

“Yes. I would like to see a man” said Gaju. “Come at night” said the naughty monkey grinning. Now Gaju knew he should not leave the herd but he was so curious about this man creature... He would go with the monkey for a quick look and then run back to his mother.

No one in the herd would find out.

So Gaju sneaked out while his mother was dozing and quickly walked to the edge of the forest.

The monkey was waiting for him.

“Good. Now pluck me a bunch of bananas from that tree” he said and then leapt ahead. Suddenly he stopped. “Look, look there is a man” the monkey squealed and quickly ran off into the darkness.

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In the dark corner stood a man with a gun. He was amazed to see a baby elephant marching towards him. He had been waiting to shoot a big male one. He wanted the tusks. They would fetch him a lot of money. But this baby elephant would fetch him money too. He could trap him easily and sell him to the circus man. This was his lucky chance. He quickly brought out his biggest net and tied a strong rope to it. Then he walked slowly towards the baby elephant.

Gaju stood still. So this was man! How small and thin he was. Why should his mother, so big and strong and brave, be afraid of him? “I can give him a push and he will fall down. But I won’t. He looks harmless to me” thought Gaju, and moved forward to get a closer look.

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Then suddenly things began to happen. The man tied the net to a rope and threw it up in the air. Gaju did not move because he had no idea what was going to happen to him.

The net slowly began to fall. Just when it was about to trap Gaju, a huge dark shape thundered out of the forest.

Gaju’s mother raised her front legs and trumpeted so loudly that the entire forest began to tremble. Branches swayed and dust swirled up, as she stomped her feet in rage. The man screamed in terror. He dropped his gun and ran away as fast as he could.

Gaju, happy to see his mother, ran to her. Then he suddenly remembered that he had disobeyed her and hung his head down in shame.

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“That man would have caught you and taken you away forever. You are a very stupid elephant. I will punish you. You will not get any bananas for a week� shouted his mother. Gaju had never seen her so angry.

He did not know how dangerous man was. How much he should fear him even though he seemed weak and helpless.

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Years later, when he was older with a beautiful pair of ivory white tusks, he realized what a narrow escape he had had. As he walked through the forest in search of food, he was always aware that men were watching him.

He had to be very careful. If only they had safe corridors for them to walk through where there were no humans, no villages, and no railway lines.

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Gaju knew he had to be constantly alert as they walked from one forest to another just like their ancestors had done for millions of years. They did not want to harm humans. They just wanted to get to their new feeding grounds.

Maybe one day some kind humans would build a safe passage for elephants. Gaju hoped they would, because like all elephants, Gaju loved to walk and walk and walk.

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RIGHT OF PASSAGE FOR WILD ELEPHANTS IN INDIA The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is India’s National Heritage Animal and has the highest level of protection under wildlife laws in India. Despite this status, elephants are in trouble for no fault of theirs. Elephants are large, nomadic, highly intelligent and very social. They need vast areas to roam and ample food and water, which is one of the reasons they are constantly on the move.

With our ever increasing population, humans have put immense pressure on land – for growing crops, building roads, railways, dams, mines and for housing. Since land cannot be created, people have extracted their needs from forest lands, leading to smaller patches of forest in place of large areas with forest cover. This pressure and fragmentation of forests has affected the ‘home range’ of elephants. An elephant herd needs about 250 sq km to 3500 sq km but when such areas are no longer available due to human interference, elephants are forced to roam farther and farther in search of food and water. This brings them in direct conflict with humans and leads to accidents on both sides. Human Elephant Conflict is a very serious issue in India today: over 400 humans are killed in encounters with elephants annually, and crops and property worth millions of rupees are damaged. Of course, there are also plenty of elephants killed in turn (about 1500 in the last 15 years) by human greed and indifference, and in retaliation for conflict: through train-hits, poaching for ivory, poisonings and electric shocks.

THE BIG SQUEEZE India has more than half of the total Asian elephants in the world. They range in 29 Elephant Reserves spread across 14 States in forests in north-east, central, north-west and south India. But Elephant Reserves also include areas of human use and are not legally protected habitats in themselves. So a large chunk of the country’s elephant habitat is unprotected or already in use by humans. While elephant herds mostly live in protected forests, the animals require free movement between these areas to socialise and search for water and their favourite food.