Return of an Enigma

Tuesday evening, I was just out of a mind numbing discussion. It was around 4 in the afternoon and I was looking out of the window, when my phone rang. Without looking at who it was I answered the phone. “Good evening…..I’m looking at the big tusker right now”. My mind snapped back into action, “big tusker”, and the time of the year June……. could only mean one thing, my enigma was back. My contact at Kaudulla had called me to say the tusker was back. For those of you who are unaware of my relationship with this tusker can follow this link. http://www.zero3images.com/trails/?p=887.

The big guy is a real enigma, appearing in Kaudulla for a few days every year and disappearing as suddenly as he appeared, none can say for sure where he lives the rest of the year. This picture, taken last year shows him in his majesty.

I inquired if he had any new injuries, and if he was in good heath, both were positive replies. He looked in good condition and the last stage of musth. This was a relief. A photographer is never satisfied with his picture, and is always looking to improve. I wanted to go back and take some more pictures. But it was Tuesday and would he wait around for the weekend?

So for the next few days, every evening my contact would call and tell me that he was watching the tusker. The weekend never came so slowly. Palitha had got worked up by me and we hatched a plan. If the tusker was still there on Friday evening we would go on Saturday. But it was not to be, as usual Murphy’s law kicked in. Something came up and I was unable to go on Saturday. Since I no longer owned a four wheel drive, I had to hitch a ride. Palitha was unable to go on Sunday. So I told him to go. With this tusker every day was vital. He had never stayed in the park for such a long stretch, and Sunday maybe too late.

Palitha went on Saturday. Around 2.30pm I called him to ask where he was, and the reply I got was “I’ll call back later, I’m with the tusker”. This was rubbing salt into the injury. I was really upset. Five days in a row the tusker had been in the park, will he be there a sixth? How will I go? All I had were questions, adding to my misery. Palitha returned on Saturday having finished two 4 GB cards. The tusker had come out into the open, mingled with the herd, drunk water, etc etc. This was too much for me. I called my father and checked if his small SUV was free the next day. It was and so at 9.30 in the night I finalized a Sunday day trip. I didn’t have my hopes up. Six days in a row in Kaudulla would be a record as far as we knew, and judging from his behavior during the last few years, this was too much to ask for.

At 2.30pm I was inside Kaudulla. By this time yesterday, palitha was photographing the tusker. There were only a few lone bulls. To make it worse, the tracker kept on showing me where the tusker had been yesterday and what he did and at what time. This running commentary did not help at all. At about 3.30pm we saw signs of a herd of elephants emerging from the jungle. The tracker suggested we park the vehicle where we can’t be seen and let the herd emerge. The last few days the tusker was with the herd. So we parked out of sight and waited.

After about an hour another jeep came along. They saw the elephants and stopped in the middle of the plains to view the herd. Still no problem, but this is where things started to go wrong. The people in the jeep decided to get down and walk towards the elephants. One boy was trying to show the others what a man he was by running towards the elephants turning back after his courage deserted him. This he did a few times. My tracker was furious as was I. He called the park office to ask who their accompanying tracker was. The answer no one. They had turned up claimed they were from the army and knew the warden well and had gone in without paying and worse without a tracker.

After a little while they tired of the herd and got in to drive away. I was busy watching the jeep, when the tracker shouted, “tusker”. Unnoticed by everyone the big guy had emerged from the jungle. Unfortunately it was not only our tracker who spotted it. Someone in the jeep, which was driving away, saw it as well. They spun the jeep around and headed straight towards the tusker. Stopping at what they though was a safe distance, they trooped out and started to walk towards the tusker to take pictures with their camera phones. By now I was about to burst a blood vessel. Army or not, I drove up to them and asked them to get in. They uttered something about been from the army. They were informed that they were too close to the tusker and he could charge them and reach them before they could get back to the jeep. One man saw the logic of this and called the women and children back. I then called the park office and complained.

The result of this drama was the tusker had gone back in. With no tusker to see and having ruined my photography they drove off. Now we had to start from the beginning. It was now about 5 and getting overcast. Light was fading fast. It took the tusker another half an hour to emerge again. But this time he was much more conservative and never left the comfort of the forest and was always at the edge. He never gave me the shot I wanted and stayed away from the herd.

Since I’m now a government official the warden got worried, the warden took my complaint seriously and came to investigate. He was immediately charged by the herd.

Being informed that the warden of an elephant park was scared of elephants and that I will have to go to him and that he will never approach the elephants, we braved the herd and approached his vehicle. Remember this was a borrowed vehicle. I had a chat with the warden. It was now 6 and the light was bad so I headed out. On one hand I was glad I had seen my enigma again. He seemed to be in good health and had survived another year. On the other hand I was disappointed with the lack of good photos, the behavior of the other visitors, as well as the general lack of management in the park.

Now that I have mentioned park management, I need to mention the deterioration in the park. Fishermen were usually allocated times to fish so as not to disturb the elephants. This is being ignored. They fish all day and actually chase the elephants away. They are seen walking inside the park. There was evidence of palu tree branches been cut down to get to the fruit. The park was being taken over by cattle and their herders can also be seen walking in the park with their dogs. All this human activity inside the park has lead to the elephants emerging from the forest late. Poaching had also gone up. The reason for this decline? The warden never goes into the park that he supposedly manages and thus has no clue as to what is happening inside. Today, thanks to my complaint it was the first time he had ventured inside the park in months. But I digress.

So I drove back with mixed feeling. Happy for the tusker having survived another year and free of any new gunshot injuries, but saddened at the decline in the park. And on a lighter note the lack of any decent pictures. By the way the tusker was not seen the next day, or since at the time of writing. So like a ghost he has once again vanished. Hopefully he will emerge healthy, next year and I will be able to keeping running behind my enigma.