Reaching out to pachyderms

a trip to remember

As one balances himself on a crowded boat, the two minute ride to the Dubare Elephant Camp appears dramatic with the Cauvery river in full spate and giant trees looming in the distance. The forest stands tall as you disembark and strain your neck to look at what lies ahead.

Dubare, a beautiful water-locked forest, is situated on the banks of the Cauvery in the district of Coorg, a vast sparsely populated mountainous region where the sweet aroma of coffee and spices pervade senses everywhere. More than the famed tiger or the elusive leopard, it is the giant trees, a larger than life riverine landscape and above all the gigantic elephants that have a place of pride at Dubare, in fact the region is traditionally known as Anekadu, forest of the elephants.

Dubare Elephant Camp is one of the few places in the country where a person can be one with the elephants in a natural setting without the fear of being trampled over. This is perhaps the singular thrill of the unique experiment offered by the Forest Department of Karnataka. The department traditionally maintained elephant camps across the state for a variety of purposes, largely the logging business. Usually located deep inside forests, these camps were a source of livelihood for indigenous communities as well. However, once logging activities were stopped across the state, there were few options left for these elephants.

Expensive that they were to maintain, it was a huge cost on the department, till a suggestion to use the camp as a tourism venture was mooted. Given Coorg’s popularity with tourists it was believed, and rightfully so, that Dubare could be included in a tourist’s itinerary and activities designed around the elephant-interaction programme.

Playing with giants
The programme which begins early each day is open to casual visitors and guests staying at the nearby wilderness resort. Naturalists, especially trained to talk about elephant behaviour interact with guests and take them around the facility.

The programme begins with vigorous bathing of the giants. The naturalist accompanies guests to the bathing area, where the elephants are being monitored by the mahouts. It is a sight, watching the mahout amble down the steep incline sitting atop the high shoulder of the elephant. The mahout, in a time-tested sequence stops near the water and gently coaxes the elephant inside the river. The elephant, perhaps tired after a long night of foraging in the forest, drinks the water to his heart’s content. 

Then just as suddenly, the mahout barks a harsh order. The agitated elephant knows what to do next, yet it resists. The mahout shouts at him, the crowd waits expectantly, the elephant trumpets loudly, some guests try to move away in the confusion, but then just as suddenly as the commotion started, it stops. The elephant decides that it is time and with a slow-motion inspired move from the movies, gently rolls into water, setting a mini tsunami in its wake, drenching unwary guests standing nearby. 

With a rough stone in his hand, the mahout vigorously scrubs the elephant, which is content and placid for now. Once in a while, the mahout looks up and invites the wary guests to try and bathe the giant. For most of the guests this is the first time that they have been this close to an elephant, and so they gingerly place their hands on the elephant’s backside and immediately recoil.

They are usually surprised that the skin is so rough and immediately start rubbing the elephant’s back. The hair on the elephant’s body is on alert and it is never easy to bathe the elephant as the prickly nature of the hair makes human hands seem very soft and fragile in comparison.

A wholesome meal
Very soon, other elephants join the first batch and naturalists take the guests to the next site, a feeding area. But a final surprise awaits the guests as the scrubbed-up elephant, struggles, and in the process of getting up, causes another tsunami and drenches a few more people. As the mahout calls all the guests to be blessed, in a secret signal called dalle, the elephant raises his trumpet, drenches everyone and starts moving towards his food.

An old building serves as the kitchen for the elephants. It is located at one corner of the camp, where mahouts prepare breakfast using a mixture of ragi, jaggery, horse gram and salt. Horse gram is boiled for up to five hours and then made into a paste. On the other hand, ragi powder is mixed with water and a little salt, and then cooked. Finally, the gram and ragi is mixed and made into a ball of about two kilogrammes each and fed to the elephants.

The preparation is cooled and then rolled into a ball which can be easily put into the elephant’s mouth. The naturalist informs the crowd about an elephant’s daily calorific requirement and invites a few of them to try feeding the elephant. It is an exhilarating experience dropping the huge ball into the elephant’s mouth and watching him gulp up the content in the blink of an eye.

Management of the camp is a serious task and the forest department ensures that the elephants are well taken care of. A roster is maintained for all the elephants. It lists details as their name, lineage, sex, age, etc. This information is frequently shared with the guests for their education. Besides, special care is provided for the mahouts who belong to the Jenu Kuruba group.

These mahouts and their helpers, also known as kavadis, spend their entire life with an elephant. Experts at the art of managing the elephants, they are trained in this form by their fathers and soon they pass it to their children. This is the world of the elephants and the mahouts of Dubare.

A serene location, lots of elephants to interact with at close quarters, beautiful patches of ancient bamboo forests and a quaint village of indigenous people who make these forests their home. Dubare thus, whilst set up as an elephant camp is a wonderful location matched perhaps by the very best nature camps in the world.