Elephants are exceptionally intelligent creatures, they have the largest brain of any land animal, and three times more neurons than humans. , Photo credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
TeaElephant Whispers, a documentary about a tribal couple raising an orphaned baby elephant, won Best Documentary (Short) at the 95th Academy Awards on 13 March. It is the story of a loving relationship between humans and other sentient species. Pachyderms in particular. The footage was shot over five years and then edited to form the documentary.
The connection between humans and nature, especially animals, is evident and those who have tried to develop it have actually benefited physically and emotionally from it. However, it can also be bad if humans do not take a careful and subtle approach in dealing with them and taming or controlling them, especially elephants. According to the National Geographic Channel documentary Elephant Rage, about 500 people are killed by elephants every year.
Of course, elephants are a very intelligent species of animal, contrary to our general perception of them because of their size and slowness. They are exceptionally intelligent creatures, they have the largest brain of any land animal, and three times more neurons than humans. While many of these neurons actually exist to control the elephant’s large and dexterous body, this creature has demonstrated its impressive mental abilities time and time again. It can recognize languages, understand human body language, use tools, show empathy and above all, it has an extraordinary memory – and hence the phrase “elephant memory”. In the past, elephants were part of royal heavy artillery and entourage for pomp and show.
Elephants have also been used for communication purposes, especially in the days when means of travel were limited. Early in my career in the civil services, I had come across a garage or “hangar” attached to the office of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Bhadrachalam in the present Telangana state, built to accommodate an elephant, probably used for Used to cross the river to travel to the outer and inner regions in connection with official work.
The elephant is no one’s fool, this is clearly shown by an incident that took place many years ago during the pre-independence period in the state of Samthar, where my maternal grandfather was working as a Diwan. There was also an elephant in the Maharaja’s party. One of the duties of the mahout appointed to take care of the elephant was to feed him jalebis. The mahout had a habit of stealing a part of this ration meant for the elephant for his personal consumption. The elephant had seen this for a long time. Then one day he picked up the mahout and threw him on the ground and crushed him to death. When the news spread, the mahout’s wife came running with a newborn baby in her arms. She placed her child in front of the elephant and told him to kill the child too as there would be no one to take care of it. The elephant picked up the child and placed it on its head.
Then there was a forest officer who was working as an instructor at the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun in the 1970s. As part of his responsibilities, he was required to take the trainees to different parts of the country for practical training. One particular year, he took them to Bandipur National Park in Karnataka, which is home to Bengal tigers, elephants, some deer species and more.
The trainer decided to teach his trainees how to escape if they encountered an elephant. He told them that they should go round a tree which would confuse the elephant.
Since there was an elephant around, he attempted to demonstrate the technique and started running around a tree, chasing the elephant. After going around several times, the elephant stopped, turned around and waited. The trainer who was still circling in the same direction collided with the elephant and was killed instantly. Perhaps the pachyderm didn’t like the audacity of the trainer to underestimate its intelligence.
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