In this series, I will share my elephant encounters. These are moments from different forests and years. Each one stayed with me in a very different way. Some were close, some were tense, and some were simply about realizing how little we see in the wild even when we think we are looking carefully.

BR Hills, Karnataka (2009)

Back in 2009, I was in the forests of Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary on a safari with friends and two experienced forest guards and forest management officials. These were people who knew BRT like the back of their palm. Each animal, each sign, they could read with ease and confidence. We were passing through a route when we came across a herd of elephants. It was a quiet sight at first. But there was a vigilant female along with a calf. We continued slowly in the jeep, trying not to disturb them.
As our jeep went past, the baby calf got spooked. The female unexpectedly took offense. We were not expecting it but then she started to charge at us and trumpeted loudly. That trumpet was enough to make the hair on my hand stand. The momentum, the size, the fierceness of that trumpet was nerve wrecking.

Of course I was with experts who rightly identified this as a mock charge. They stayed calm and did not panic. But still this was a scary experience for me. In that moment it did not matter what they knew. The feeling of being charged by an elephant stays with you. Even after we moved away, the trumpeting sound remained in my mind!

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