I Love Elephants!

Chitwan National Park

Saturday I arrived in Chitwan National Park, a national reserve in the lowlands of Nepal. The region is quite hot and grassy, and the main population are the Tharu, who apparently settled and controlled this area from long ago due to some natural resistance to malaria. They grow a variety of crops, including rice, corn, wheat, potatoes, and vegetables, all at different times of the year. This happens to be the season for rice harvest, and villagers are seen carrying huge bundles of rice sheaves. The rice still in the fields is golden brown. Once the grains are threshed from the sheaves, the stalks are saved and used to feed the goats and cows.

My first activity was to take a walk through the village and visit the government elephant stables. (The government uses elephants for patrolling the park against poachers.) It was a hot afternoon, and we walked some distance through tall elephant grass, marshes, and some woody areas, arriving at the river bank to watch the sunset. In the evening, we had delicious daal bhaat and then watched a series of Tharu stick dances, in which the young men beat and twirl sticks in an imitation of self-defense. They were quite energetic, and a couple of times I had to scoot my chair back for fear of getting clobbered. One fraction of a second out of beat, and the dancers would end up with a nasty bump on the head!

Yesterday morning, we took a canoe ride down river, spotting all kinds of birds, monkeys and crocodiles along the way. There are some nine varieties of kingfishers here, and we saw three: a bright red one with a blue back; a bright turquoise one with a white breast; and a speckled black and white one – quite stunning! The river itself is quite calm and quiet – making for a very tranquil trip.

I should mention the canoes themselves, which are quite something. The dug-out canoes are made from tree trunks, somewhat crudely carved out, maybe about a foot and a half deep and two feet wide. Our group of 8 or 10 went in two canoes joined together. Those on the right has to sit as far right as possible, and those on the left to the left. And once all were settled in (on little wooden seats), the canoes sat pretty low in the water – the water level was a few inches below the edge of the canoe. Any sudden movement would tip the balance towards one side or other, and I was worried we would be flooded with water, or capsize. So we all sat very still for the hour ride (a bit sore on the backside). The “driver” steers the canoe with a long pole, as the water is not deep or particularly rapid.

At the end of the canoe trip, we got out and walked back to town through forest, grasslands and marshes. Our guide first told us about all the animals we could potentially see – monkeys, wild boars, wild elephants, sloth bears, rhinoceros, tigers, snakes. The wild elephants, rhinos and bears are very dangerous and unpredictable, so our guide told us how to escape if charged (up a tree for the rhino, into the bush for the elephant, using loud noise and sticks to scare away a bear, and by prayer should we chance to meet a tiger). I did not expect to see much, as it was mid-morning by this time and we made a lot of noise walking through the brush. So when I saw a rhino standing in a clearing in the forest, I was completely taken by surprise. I was walking just behind the head guide, who didn’t even see the rhino until I motioned to him. We were probably within 40 meters of him, and the guide stopped immediately and had us back up very carefully and quietly. We walked around to the other side, where we were more protected by the brush, but we never got as good a view of him as that initial encounter. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to get a photo, so you will just have to take my word for it that I did in fact see a real rhino on foot, up close, in the wild. It was quite lucky, actually, as yesterday there were 380 visitors to the park and no one saw a rhino.

To top off the morning, we finished our walk at the riverside just in time for elephant bathing. By this time it was quite warm, and I was ready for a cool swim, so I decided to join the elephants (actually, this is one of the tourist attractions). With the help of the elephant trainer, I climbed up on one of the elephants, and he sprayed me with water from his trunk again and again. Then he decided to lay down in the river (in response to a command from the trainer – all part of the show), and dumped me off. How cool!

In the afternoon, I took an elephant safari. In other words, we rode elephants through the forest looking for game. They loaded us up four to an elephant, riding on a saddle with a wood frame. The motion took a little getting used to – rocking from side to side as the elephant lumbered along. They often went right through or over trees, so we had to watch out for overhanging branches. It was a lot of fun, and we spotted two rhinos, lots of deer (two types), monkeys, and wild boar. Not bad for a day’s safari!

Today, before departing from Chitwan, I went to the government elephant breeding center. This is where the female elephants come and wait for some handsome wild male elephant to sweep them off their feet. Seriously, though, they keep the mating far away from the village because the wild males can be very aggressive during mating season. The females carry the babies for two years before giving birth. There were several young-uns in the center, of varying ages. The most famous are the twin males – Ram and Laxman – about a year old. It is rare for elephants to have multiple births where both twins survive. Ram and Laxman are very curious and roam about the center freely, greeting visitors with their trunks searching for cookies. Unfortunately, the shop that sells elephant cookies (still don’t know exactly what they feed them) was closed for the holiday today, so the babies quickly deserted us when we didn’t have anything to offer them.