After a relaxing drink from the guest house and the evening gaze into the opposite bank, we found the time was 5pm. We decided we will check out the official tourist help in the center of the very small village that is Theppakadu.
We wanted to take the bus that would go into the forest early tomorrow morning. We went down to their counters and confirmed that the buses start at about 7am tomorrow morning. We need to get the tickets only at that time and so we decided to take a fling into the forest roads on our car.
We packed our car with people. All two kids and the five adults in one car and decided to go down the road towards Mysore / Bandipur wild life sanctuary. We started driving down the road, it was already getting dark and I know in another half an hour it should be dark. The forest was thick, green, lush and pleasant.
We kept watching and driving at a steady pace between 30 and 40 km an hour. Not specifically in a hurry. Nothing! We just went on and on till we reached the interstate checkpost. The road is a national highway and therefore very well maintained and was pleasant drive.
We were stopped by the guard there and we just enquired how far is Bandipur. He said, you need to cross the other check post that was visible and you are into it. But then you need to pay another INR 50 for crossing in and may be you can drive for another 10 minutes down that road. Because, after dark it is not advisable to drive down these roads in a car. It is ok if you are on a bus or a lorry.
So we decided to turn back and drive down the road back to Theppakkadu. We were about 10 kms away from Theppakkadu and we made a u turn and started driving back.
The road was abetted by a short 20 m clearing on either side. Immediately after the clearing, we could see thick forest with bamboo trees among mostly acacia and others. We could also see shrubs in between, lanthanam shrubs with their small colourful flowers dotted. Surprisingly, not many birds chirped, though we could spot some here and there. Mostly common babblers and an occasional woodpecker if we could really strain our eyes.
We were at this exercise as we were driving down at about 20 kms an hour. A scorpio jeep was coming right in front of us. They should be at a distance of 500m from us. The road was straight and the evening glow was still in the forest, though the parking lights of the vehicle was on. A distant car's red danger lights were vanishing from us since they were driving much faster than us.
Then, initially, there was the sound of cracking wood to our right. It was very mild, then all of a sudden we could hear the trumpeting of the elephant and it broke through the thick bamboo trees, lifted one of them with its trunks and shouting really heavily threw the bamboo out.
It broke through the thick maze of trees which naturally had a huge breaking noise. When we turned to the right I could see a large male elephant with the trunks lifted up along with its tusks. The tusk was really large at least one meter in length with a nice curvy upward turn. Large, the animal was very large!
I have seen and worked with a number of elephants in the camp earlier during my college days. I have walked through the same forest taking animal census about 15 years back. We were one of the first set to take animal census in Mudumalai. But today is different. During our trips even to see a bison we had to walk silently into the thick forest for hours. But now we could see animals at every turn. And here was an elephant, larger than any of them I had met earlier and bolder. It was coming on to the road without any hesitation.
I could hear a loud gasp from my people in the car. My eleven year old daughter was absolutedly stunned and frightened to her wits end. 'Daddy! Drive fast! Drive fast!!'
I had already stopped the car. The Scorpio just passed us and they too stopped. Their red lights were visible on my rear view mirror.
I told my daughter to maintain silence and watch the elephant. Then we saw another female right behind the large male. We are safe, I thought! Only a lonely elephant is dangerous. But this looks like a part of the herd and the herd cannot be far away.
I have seen large herds in Mudumalai and have even followed them during my earlier visits with some of the researchers until the female turned hostile since there were some young ones in that herd. May be I will let you into that story in a later post.
Now, there were only these two elephants that we saw. They walked straight to the road from the thick forest. From the right hand side they moved close to us and then took a turn on the road and along the road away from us. The elephants should have been just about 10 meters from us! They were closer to the guys in the scorpio. They were also sitting tight.
The kids were going wild. My wife was also getting jittery. The animals then started walking away from our car on the road, crossed the scorpio, then took a right turn further and crossed over to the other side of the forest.
That was close! Pretty close! I started driving at a steady 30 to 40 km an hour until we hit a major junction. A Qualis was coming our way. The men in it were climbing down and video graphing everything in the forest including us. I shouted to them, 'hey there are elephants about 5kms away. We just saw them'. Immediately, they clambered into their car and started driving down the road.
We reached the guest house at about 7pm. Are we frightened? Obviously, the encounter was pretty close and the sleepless night that followed, was not only because of the elephants but also because of the latenight visit of the panther to the Moyar river.
But that story in the next post, please! Keep reading and give me your comments. I really do not know whether you people like it or not.
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