The paisa Vasool Tusker

Amit Rane, my classmate in the herpetology course and a cool photographer wanted to shoot wild elephants. I made the arrangements and Amit landed in Bangalore with 3 friends of his. Vidya and Ganesh, a wildlifeworshipping couple from Mumbai and Hari, a chennai dude. We boarded the state transport bus to Kutta, where I had booked cottages in a lovely estate called “Chiligiri”.

As our sole intention was to sight wild elephants and to capture the moment for eternity, we hired a jeep and set out to Wayanaad National park and Nagarhole national park. We would drive up and down through each park and get onto every available safari trips into the jungle. We did this for 2 days without sighting a single elephant :((. And imagine this happening in a supreme Biosphere which has the densest population of Indian Elephants in the world !!!!!!!

Our spirits were at their lowest when we were getting back to the cottage on the second day of the trip after yet another unsuccesful sorties on the Nagarhole road. Ane ! Ane ! Our driver suddenly exclaimed and switched off the headlights stopped the jeep. A big black shape with a very noticeable pair of tusks was crossing the road in front of the jeep. But, unfortunately that is all that we could see of him and it was just too dicey to linger there as this felow was just too close and it was very dark. We slowly reversed and got back and an oncoming light showed us the full glory of a tusker. He was big and exuded an Aura of strength. We finally left the king and returned to the cottage with the low spirits ebbing away though disappointed that we could not get it on film.

The next day, we set off early morning and did another unsuccesful beat of the Wayanaad stretch and decided to hit Nagarhole forest. 5 kilometres into the drive, there stood this magnificient specimen of the Elephant race. He was busy eating and did not care to look at us or react in any way. There was a good 15 feet distance between us and we could start photographing him. We were watching every movement of his as the driver said he is a known rogue and very unpredictable. But, he was such a darling and gave us no inkling of his alleged character. He was surely a Paisa Vasool Tusker.

Some of his Pictures have been posted. Check them out.