This is the real life incident told by my uncle, who was a geologist working for OIL AND NATURAL GAS OF INDIA. Way back in 1970 to1980, he was posted in the north east parts of India. He was a young and brilliant geologist, very hard working, dedicated to his work and loved his job. Every morning he would set out in a jeep with a guide to explore the jungles in search of any traces of oil deposits. He would have an assistant who was a local; he knew the jungle very well. They would go in the jeep as far as the roads were there after that they had to go on foot. They had to be very cautious of the rogue elephants in that part of the jungles.
Rogue elephants are the ostracized members of a group of elephants. Elephants usually live in a pack. They move together, live together and they follow certain social norms. They have a monarch, who is usually the eldest male elephant. All the other elephants follow his advice, he leads the way. He knows where to find the best pastures to feed on, the best water wholes to drink. And the best routs to follow. Usually all the other pack members do follow him, no questions asked. Trust is unconditional. Female members of the pack take care of their young ones, sometimes they don’t mind baby sitting other female members baby. The baby walks with the mother, no matter how tricky it looks the mother never stamps the baby even by mistake.
Sometimes some male members of the pack feel they do not need to obey the pack rules, maybe because of their own independent rebellious personality, or because of painful ear infections and headaches. They are ousted from the pack. These elephants when ousted from the pack have a hurt ego. They are angry with everything around them. They turn very destructive and they turn their anger on everything around them. The trample the crops, they uproot the trees around them and they don’t mind chasing any human being they can lay their eyes on and stamp them to death. Their radius of domain can extend up to two hundred miles.
This young Geologist was on one of his routine search for oil deposits on foot one day along with his local guide who knew the habitat very well. This boy was a teenager but he knew the ways of the jungle very well. This knowledge was passed on to him from generations. After a few miles of trekking they spotted a lone elephant that was looking the other side. Elephants have very poor eyesight but very sharp hearing power. The guide knew this elephant was a rogue elephant because he was alone. He was a potential danger. So they turned around and started running to save themselves. The elephant started chasing them but they were not sure. The guide disclosed that the best way to know if the elephant was chasing them or not is if you whistle the elephant responds. After a while the boy wanted to test his own knowledge and he whistled. Sure enough the elephant responded by trumpeting aloud. Now they had to run faster. The only way to confuse the elephant was by both of them running in two different directions. So they parted ways. After about twenty minutes of run the young Geologist reached the jeep. The jeep driver and the geologist waited for two hours for the guide to come but he did not surface. They went back to the camp. They were worried for the boy; they had all kinds of mixed emotions, guilt, fear and anxiety. Morning ten to evening four they waited for the boy. Evening four o’ clock the boy turned up at the campsite. The first reaction of the Yong Geologist was relief followed by a bout of anger. The boy was bombarded with a shower of questions.
The guide explained that when he took the other rout he encountered another rogue elephant. Seeing the second rogue elephant the first one back tracked. Now the second rogue elephant started chasing him. So this boy had to dodge the second rogue elephant take a detour and run. Elephants can run fast. Somehow because of human intelligence he could outsmart both the rogue elephants and reach the safe zone of the camp.
The young geologist and all his colleagues had reason enough to rejoice that evening. Their precious Guide was back safely with them.
