Wild Elephants and a Scary Night to Remember!

Shernaz takes us through the rampage of wild elephants, and the fright and scare of residents in the dead of the night. An exclusive for Different Truths.

Thudang! Bang, clang, jangle, clatter!

An ominous racket! We are startled out of our beds, groggily trying to figure out what is going on. It is pitch dark because the garden and backyard lights are out. Due to heavy rains and floods uprooting trees the power supply to the lights outside is disrupted.   

“Elephants!” says my husband in an undertone. They seem to be all over the place.” We are ashen with the thought of what could happen. Then he began whispering through the telephone, into the ears of the closest neighbour. “We have no idea how many there are. What should we do?”

“First, switch on the lights in every room and stay as quiet as you can. I am calling for tractors to drive them out. Till then don’t do anything that will make them nervous.” Anxious, my son and he run around on tiptoes, switching on every light in the bungalow and wait for help to arrive. My father-in-law is in a daze awakened from deep sleep at 2a.m., trying to make sense of the chaos.

Rampage of the Elephants

Pixie and Misha won’t stop howling and yelping as they shake with uncontrollable fear. We have finally managed to quieten Misha, but Pixie is edgy beyond extreme. I take her into the safest bathroom, lock us in and wait for my husband and son to enlighten me with murmured remarks. In between my gardener who lives close by kept calling me up and I tried to fill him up on where the elephants might be from the rumpus they were creating.

Just then there is a tremendous thud on a windowpane and as it shatters, I can hear more glass splintering and something go clank-clank and then a whoosh. All this is happening close to the bathroom we are shut in. Pixie is almost berserk with fright. I can hear whispers from the bedroom but can’t figure out what is being discussed. We have been closeted in for more than two hours and the foray isn’t over yet.  

After another half hour of this drama, there is relative peace. My husband and son move into separate bedrooms and peep through the curtains into a solid wall of inky blackness.

Destruction Galore

Probably a family or perhaps two matriarchs and a baby slowly meander towards the gate. Along the way, there’s no impeding the baby’s curiosity and playful antics as it brings down one more pole and shatters the unlit bulb. There are more plants to be destroyed while the matriarchs break down the gate with a resounding rattle. Baby elephants are cute but their nosiness can get very destructive and we realise later that it has had a free run of everything that caught its eye right around the bungalow. All this we surmise in daylight when we get the full picture and put two and two together.

A tusker goes out through the fence on another side, having chomped off entire beds of green peas, spinach, and carrots plus guavas in the backyard. Just then we hear the loud chug-chug of tractors and as their lights focus on the group of three, they turn around trumpeting and thunder off in the opposite direction to join the tusker.

The tractors roar into the compound, crash over the broken gate and a few fallen flowerpots as two more elephants are chased out. After all the commotion I could finally release myself and the dog from our voluntary confinement of three hours or more. Only when the all-clear was given to us, we dared to step out quite shaken, uncertainty still lurking in our eyes, to assess the destruction caused very likely by the frolics of the inquisitive little one.

A curtain rod lay bent and limp on the window sill and the curtain had been pulled out, trampled upon and flung down in a tattered heap. There was no way I could ascertain the destruction to pots and plants; that would have to be done at daybreak; the antenna had been bent to breaking point but mercifully the car was not squashed; dented and scratched, yes. Tin sheets torn off from my small nursery lay helplessly tossed around and there were more light poles prone in the dust; the thick hedge around the backyard had been broken through in one place.

We were visited once more by a group of three and by a loner months later. But these had walked in, feasted on fruits and vegetables and gone their way harmlessly. It is said be careful what you wish for; your wish might just be granted.

Wild Elephants

These visits finally satiated my twenty-year desire to see wild elephants at close quarters in this beautiful land of tea plantations. It was once their domain, shared with other wild animals; humans encroached upon their territory, how can we grudge them their incursions into ours now?  They are a loved and protected species here.

Freakily, these visits started soon after we had hired a new maid and stopped once she left. Do such co-incidents birth folklore and superstition?

Author’s Note: This article is based on a narration of the incident.

Photos sourced by the author