Mike Anderson (U.S.A)
Visited: August, 10th, 04
After
completing my African Wild Life Tour, my next chosen destination was India.
A date with the great Indian Elephant was the main objective of my visit to
India. Being a wild life researcher- particularly, a elephant enthusiast, I
was always beguiled by the still and moving pictures of elephants, but the
real encounter with the Indian elephant was my most precious dream. I sure,
nothing could be more captivating and majestic in appearance then these
giant mammals.
Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala- the southern most part of India was
my first choice, besides a thick population of elephant it is also a great
tiger reserve. I boarded a plane from New Delhi to fly to Madurai in Tamil
Nadu, the nearest airport at a distance of 140km from the park, from there I
took a meter taxi for my destination. The entire way was dotted with lush
green vegetation and coconut trees along with vast patches of tea gardens,
it was a perfect picturesque sight absolute in contrast with what I have
heard about India.
I preferred a jeep safari to view the entire vista of the park. With much
less effort I was able to trace elephants in their natural habitat. I could
view the large herds of these species with their loud growling sound echoing
the entire wood, from a distance itself.
After sighting these royal creatures from quite a
close quarter, it was not difficult to distinguish the great Indian elephant
from the African elephant. I could realize-the Indian elephant is slightly
smaller than its African counterpart having, almost a length of 20 feet, a
height of 10 feet, and a weight topping 11,000 lbs. Asian Elephants have a
diverse vegetarian diet, and feed on grasses, leaves, bark, shoots, creepers
and palms. They also favor seasonal variety occasionally such as fig leaves
and fruits, wood apple and mango.
The jungle authorities also updated me with other information like, the
female has 1 or two young ones after a gestation period of 19-22 months-
this is the longest gestation of any mammals. They added further that only
the male Indian elephant has tusks. The longest recorded tusk was that of an
African elephant, 11.5 feet long and 236 pounds. I was awe-stuck to know the
fact- the elephant can live about 100 years and have the lowest metabolic
rate comparing to any other animal. They further added, the Indian elephant
is used for transport and logging in most areas of India, Burma, and
Thailand, almost 50,000 of Indian elephants are working animals and has a
remarkable speed, it was quite amazing to know that an elephant can reach up
to the speed of 25 mph at short bursts.
Beside elephants, the motley coterie of wild life fired my fantasy during
my fortnight long stay in this enchanting land which I discovered in these
dense forest.
I also enjoyed the subliminal images of Sambar, Gaur and wild Pigs, Barking
Deer's wandering around the lakeside through the motor launches that cruise
the lake at the park. The jungle authorities told me, in the dry months of
March and April, the animals luxuriates near the lake and the Indian
Elephants can be seen bathing and swimming in the reservoir. Tigers can also
be sighted near the water bodies during summer times.
It was really a sad fact- the elephants are often tamed by cruelty and
hunger. Furthermore, they are also becoming highly endangered species,
mainly due to the devastation of their habitat- tropical grassy plains and
rain forests. I strongly fee the setting up of game reserves should support
guard the Indian elephants natural habitat, but as elephants reproduce
slowly, one has to wait patiently to see the results of present efforts.
In true sense my visit to India was quite gratifying, that assisted me a
lot in my exploration and research on these gigantic mammals.
