Mudumalai

What do you get when you travel 8 hours by train into a more Southwest part of India?

Paradise.

On July 5^th night, the group of us set out to ride a sleeper train into the night to Mysore, a palace town in another state of India. We were finally setting off for Mudumalai, the elephant and tiger preserve. Mudumalai itself is actually part of Tamil Nadu (“our” state), but trains don’t travel to it. The only way to get there is via car…and hopefully it’s a Jeep.

The train station was a very short distance from our house, hidden from view like the cattle shelter. You’d never expect it to be wedged in amongst the buildings and shops and schools. We joked around, looking for platform 9 ¾ before finding our train. Our cabin was air conditioned, unlike the poor souls in some of the others which were packed to the brim, and we were each given a hard blue bunk in a section of the train walled off by a curtain. Riding the train was an interesting experience…if you had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, you’d have to bypass all the snoring people and random feet stuck out of bunks into the aisle.

At 7:30am, we were awakened to calls of “Mysore! Coffee!” from beyond the curtain. We unloaded onto the platform into a much cooler climate. It felt to be about 85 or 80 rather than the weather we were accustomed to. Outside, our driver and future guide Rajesh waited with a Jeep fit for the jungle. You could tell he was more of a nature man; he wore a khaki shirt and brown pants and his jeep had a leafy, camouflage pattern on the inside. The 8 of us (Dr. MohanKumar included) piled in and set off on our journey to the forest.

As soon as we departed, I knew I was in for a treat. The countryside around Mysore was much like the villages, with big mountain ranges (the Western Ghats) surrounding us, lots of foliage, cows and fields of sunflowers. It was definitely more of a farming community and everything smelled fresh. We stopped in front of a school to stretch our legs and all of the school children ran out to greet us, waving and jumping up and down.

After an hour and a half we rolled up to a huge arch which marked the entrance to the preserve. Guards in full camo stood out front, blocking the entrance. Although Mudumalai does allow some tourists to enter, it is a very protected area and guests are kept on a short leash. Local cattle, with their local diseases like Foot and Mouth, are not allowed to stray past the gates even for grazing. Tourist vehicles are prohibited from stopping on the road, even if there is a very tempting Nat Geo opportunity just waiting for you to snap a picture. If roads develop potholes, they won’t be fixed, since this helps to deter many vehicles from passing through. There is absolutely no littering, and tourists are urged to use actual toilets so that natural habitats aren’t soiled. You are, under no circumstances, allowed to touch or feed the wildlife (this includes the monkeys, who really encourage you to do both).

And lastly, you cannot carry a weapon unless you are a ranger. You see, this isn’t your cutesy little forest with bunny rabbits and white tailed deer and the occasional black bear; this is a sprawling, green abyss of plants and mountains and ponds and things that can kill you. Mudumalai is home to wild Indian elephants, panthers, leopards, wild dogs, bears, Gaur cattle (bison), and tigers. It took one specific instance for me to appreciate just how scary the forest could be…but we’ll get into that later.

As soon as we passed the gate, the forest spread out before us. It was absolutely breath taking. Everything smelled wonderful, and the air was cool and fresh. There was no sound of honking and only a few vehicles chugged by. Besides the occasional peacock call and the continuous, high pitched whine of cicadas and other insects in the background, the area was serene and quiet.

Peacock in the Lantana flowers

Monkeys leaped from tree to tree, chasing each other and staring down at us. Little herds of spotted deer hung out by the side of the road, eating nervously, their big ears swiveling around like mini satellite dishes.

Spotted deer doe

We traveled further into the forest and eventually came upon the tourist center. Wooden signs pointed the way to elephant rides and safaris.

There was a small museum and gift shop and an area for guests to mill about. Even though it was the most public part of Mudumalai, there weren’t very many people there. Dr. Kumar described the forest as one of India’s hidden gems, since most people never visit and it is kept very hush hush. If it were to become more popular, it would surely lose some of its charm and habitats would be encroached on. The locals and rangers want Mudumalai to be noticed, but not swarmed.

Monkey at the tourist center eating a mango

After the tourist center, we arrived at our living quarters. They were nestled a bit further into the woods at the back of a long drive leading off from a tiny village.

There’s a kitchen, a large room for eating, bathrooms and shower rooms (although there’s no actual showers, just buckets of warm water-I thought I would hate showering "by hand," but it was actually kinda fun!), two large rooms for guests with multiple beds (the Peacock dormitory) and an outdoor stage for playing games.

We came to learn over the time that our home was also a popular break spot for rangers and other locals who stopped in for the delicious food that the cook made (he added a little, or a lot, or coconut oil to everything). It seems that everyone in the jungle community knows everybody else, and they’re a happy lot.

FRENCH FRIES!!!!!

When I went to relieve myself in the bathrooms, I came face to face with my first nature scare; Charlotte, the half dollar sized black spider who liked to hang out by the toilet. She moved every time that you did and scared the living crap out of you. After a while I got used to her, but it was still always a nice surprise when she WASN’T hanging out in her usual spot.

Once everyone was settled in, we set out to meet the elephants. Mudumalai is home to a few “camps” which are run by rangers and mahouts, or elephant handlers. These men are trained from a young age to work with the great beasts, and eventually get to master one of their own. They’re paid about 10,000 rupees monthly by the government to do this job and watch over the pachyderms. Elephants don’t bond with just anybody; it takes a lot of work and effort to get them to listen and want to work for you. The mahouts speak in a language that is a combination of Tamil, Hindi and Kannada (the language of the state Mysore is located in). They’re all extremely fit, small men and boys who carry nothing but sticks and somehow manage to control multiple ton animals. The elephants respond to verbal commands which include things like “turn around, lift you foot, walk, stop” etc. and allow them to ride on their backs, bathe and feed them. They become so accustomed to their individual mahout that they won’t accept food from anyone else and will even turn their trunk up at something which has been touched by another hand.

Before coming to the forest, I had always thought of elephants as very docile, slow moving animals which didn’t really care who was around them and were unphased by just about everything. This idea probably came from attending the Topsfield fair, Big E and other petting zoos in my childhood where the elephants were just big lumbering pack mules, toting around screaming children and their parents on their backs all day long. They’d just walk around and around in a circle after the parents paid their $10 to get up top and snap a few pictures. I had seen videos of African elephants charging cars and fending off lions, but I just didn’t think that they’d take offense to individual humans.

I was wrong. Although the camp elephants are the most socialized ones you’ll find around Mudumalai, they aren’t shy in showing you when they’re upset, nervous or threatened. Elephant body language for “GET AWAY” is usually characterized by putting their tail up, their ears forward, raising their trunk and staring you down. And when you have something that tall and huge giving you the stink eye, you back up. And if you’re not in a car, you better pray or be able to run like Usain Bolt.

Dr. Kumar explained to us that the thing to do if in a car is to try to intimidate the elephant by stopping dead in your tracks and not moving. If that doesn’t work, and they start to come after you, then it’s time to gun it in the opposite direction. And all of the vehicles in India are standards, so you better hope you don’t stall out.

We learned lots of survival tips throughout the week. It was very hard for me, a sheltered American, to accept that I wasn't completely safe walking around on my vacation. Being a tourist always carries the false illusion of safety...you're an American, you've got your camera and your bug spray and your water bottles. You never imagine that a tiger could actually come out of the woods and drag you off if you wandered too far from your guides. When I first arrived, I wanted to walk around near the dorms but was told that we weren't allowed. We could only go a little ways up the paved road. At the beginning of the trip, this seemed overly cautious to me, but by the end I completely understood why. They told us stories of panthers hanging around outside the bathrooms or sitting on the steps near the dorms, and elephants coming within a half mile of camp. While there were no peeping panthers, two elephants did come within site of our dorm by the end of the trip. The illusion of safety slowly melted away as we learned more about the forest and came face to face with its inhabitants.

Anyway, back to the elephant camp.

While at the camp, we watched the mahouts take their elephants down to the river for bathing. The elephants walk slowly into the river until they are almost completely submerged, and the mahouts urge them to stay in until they’re clean.

It’s really very cute. Some elephants seemed to love the water; they’d get in and play with big huge logs, balancing them on their tusks. Some would submerge completely and breathe with their trunks. Others would get in and turn around, looking at the mahout as if to say, “can I get out yet?” One mahout even encouraged his tusker (male elephant with tusks) to squirt water from his trunk like a hose. You could see the bond between animal and human, especially when the mahouts physically washed their elephants with scrub brushes or rubbed their tusks with sand.

We kept our distance and snapped millions of pictures, mesmerized by the site in front of us. It’s one thing to see animals that big behind the confines of a zoo exhibit and it’s another thing to see them in their natural habitat, roiling around in a river, enjoying themselves and being completely free. The only thing which signifies that they are controlled by anyone is a chain about their neck with a silver bell on the end, and a long chain wrapped around a back leg. The chains are left to drag behind them when they’re roaming so that if they happen to wander into the jungle and don’t return, they can be tracked by the mark that it leaves in the dirt.

After bath time, it was feeding time. The elephants were lead up the hill to an open hut where blocks of food were set up across a table. They were made to stand about 20 feet from the table behind a wooden beam which stood at elephant neck level. Each animal would get up close to the beam, lay their trunk over it and swing it back and forth, eagerly awaiting their meals.

The food blocks were made of a combination of rice and other grains and protein sources. Mahouts prepared food for their own elephants, and mixed in medicines when necessary. The elephants are much like cats and dogs and won’t always eat their blocks if they can smell the medicine. So the mahouts have to be sneaky. They walk up to the elephants, command them to open their mouths, and wait for them to raise their trunks up out of the way. The mahouts then gently place the food in and the elephants use their amazingly dexterous tongue to pull it back to their molars.

If the elephants still won’t eat the blocks, they’re discarded and the wild boar, which are always roaming about, sneak in for the scraps. Besides the blocks, they were fed coconuts and sugar cane, which they’d hold like a lollipop with their trunks and bite pieces off of.

Of course, a few measly blocks of rice and wheat isn’t going to satisfy a 4-6 ton animal, so the elephants are allowed to graze freely all day long. They’re constantly eating, grasping at things with their trunk and ripping them out of the ground, mouthing everything. Their trunk is in near constant motion, always feeling around with its one little “finger” on the end. (Unlike African elephants, Asian elephants only have one “finger” and are a bit smaller). The only thing they are prohibited from eating (if they’re seen trying) is the decorative orangey-pink flower Lantana, which causes photosensitization. Lantana was planted by the British when they arrived in India to help make the forest look more beautiful….as if it needed any help.

The main job of the camp elephants is to do the heavy lifting and serve as khumkis, or guard elephants. They’re used to help pull vehicles from ditches, move logs from roads or transport sticks and other heavy cargo. The tuskers are the main guards, and are used to help move wild elephants out of towns or other areas that they may have wandered into. Sometimes, elephants just can’t help themselves from barging into someone’s garden and trampling the place. The vets and rangers at Mudumalai do their best to put radio collars on the beasts that continuously enter towns so that at least the people have some advance warning. But if they slip by, the khumkis will help to get them out.

A khumki camp tusker

Besides these tasks, the elephants spend most of their day eating and just hanging out. The female camp elephants (cows) breed with the wild males, and the camp males breed with the wild females. It’s a convenient way to keep inbreeding at bay, and keep the elephants living very natural lives. They generally seemed extremely happy, and Dr. Kumar explained that due to the fact that the mahouts use only sticks and their voices to control them, there are hardly ever any purposeful human killings. In fact, one of the camp elephants, Murthy, had a long history of going on rampages and killing people. He had killed about 30 in his day, and was accepted into the camp for training and a new life. Once there, he worked nonstop with a mahout and is now so docile and gentle that we were allowed to approach him in a big group and feed him sugar cane. Elephants generally live until their 70s, so there’s a lot of time for rehabilitation.

Me giving a kiss to the vicious killer

Aside from visiting with the elephants, we went on many safaris during our stay. The second day we took two separate jeeps, but on the first day we traveled in style on one of the tourist sighting vehicles which are all decked out in camo. The drivers all have eagle eyes and can spot animals even from far away, in the dark, behind trees. Our main wish was to see a tiger, but with only about 70 in the whole preserve (which is actually a really large number since tigers aren’t very common), it would be difficult. But just like house cats, they have their hang outs, and most of those hang outs consist of big flat rocks in the sun.

Sadly, we never saw a tiger in Mudumalai. Or any predator, for that matter. But we did see a ton of spotted deer, at least 150 wild elephants, a slew of monkeys and peacocks, giant squirrels, about 5-10 Sambar deer, wild boars, Indian Gaur cattle (bison) and one of the most beautiful natural sites I have ever seen...the Moyar Falls.

The safaris lasted anywhere from 1-4 hours and took us deep into the woods, and by the end of our time there we had covered nearly all of the forest. One path led us to the top of a large hill and we could see the mountain range stretching in all directions, encircling us.

Occasionally it would start to rain, making the forest slick and shiny, and making all of the wild elephants look as though they were polished. We came to learn that if you saw a lot of deer in a row, you weren’t likely to see a tiger, since they could smell and sense them long before we could. And if it rained hard, the tigers would probably go for shelter, since cats don’t like getting their fur wet.

Other interesting things while on safari…

Wild boar

LOTS OF BEES

We came across a tree while driving which had the remains of a panther’s kill hanging from a crook. It was very hard to make out, and my camera couldn’t really do it justice, but you can sort of envision legs dangling if you look hard enough. Panthers often come back to feast over and over, so the prey will just hang there until they finish it. Yum.

A spotted deer that we spotted (har har) almost became prey himself, and we saw that he had a big wound over his hamstring muscles that he stopped to lick every few seconds. Not sure if it was a tiger or panther attack, but he had narrowly gotten away.

We came across a few giant groups of elephants, lead by their matriarchs. In elephant society, alpha females run the families and males often separate and go off on their own. The older the elephant, the less pigment they have on their face, so you can often tell the grandmas by their light pink, mottled ears and trunks. The younger animals are completely grey.

A family group with a matriarch, young female and baby

Baby with abscess on the bottom of his trunk

A young one looking out from the forest

Elephants, alarmed at our Jeep, exiting the water hole

Out of all of the wildlife, I really liked the Sambar deer. They were few and far between compared to the spotted deer, but they were a lot bigger and more majestic looking. The males sometimes had a large scent gland on their neck that looks like a wound.

Male sambar deer

The Gaur bison were also pretty impressive. These things were gigantic and traveled in large groups. They weren't very shy and would stay within 50 feet of the vehicle, so we got some good pictures. Luckily, they aren't the type to charge. They'd just stand around staring, eating and drinking from pools.

So...charging. That brings me to the most exciting part of our adventure. I can't remember which day it was right now, but I remember it happened at the beginning of one of our afternoon safaris. We were all relaxed and in a food coma from lunch. We loaded up into two separate Jeeps, with me, Jackie and Kayla in the back and Tasha, Chrissy and Jeremy in the front Jeep. Usually you want to be in front since you see the critters first and you don't get all the exhaust fumes. But after that day I was happy to travel in the back.

Everything started out normal...spotted deer sightings, some light rain, some elephant poop spread across the dirt road. (When I say road, I really mean the Jeep track which has been worn down by vehicles and has no branches in the way. It’s very rough with lots of mud and potholes and is very narrow). The feces was fresh, which meant that someone had recently been there. Suddenly we drove up upon another Jeep which was parked on the side of the track. The inhabitants were up ahead in the road, pointing to something off in the distance. They were elephant trackers, and reported to us that a large tusker in musth (the equivalent of "rut" or mating frenzy for deer) was spotted and was chasing down cars. He had faced off with them not five minutes before and was temporarily eating, off in the trees.

As soon as we got this information, the tusker himself came slowly out of the forest and started advancing on the Jeeps, walking lazily. It wasn't scary at first, but then he put his ears forward, raised his trunk and began to run faster. The trackers jumped back in to their Jeep and began to reverse. We had never exited our Jeep, so we immediately started backing up. The van in front of us got a little overzealous as the elephant accelerated and backed right into us. Luckily, there was no major damage done…but we weren't out of harms way yet.

As soon as all 3 Jeeps we had reversed a good 50 feet, the elephant stopped and stared us down. Then, he turned around as if nothing had happened and wandered further down the path, around the corner and out of site.

I thought the adventure was over, and he would disappear into the forest and leave us alone. I also thought we'd turn around and go another direction, but the drivers decided to continue on. After a few minutes the three Jeeps started advancing again, my Jeep last. We crept slowly around the bend in the road and there was no sign of the elephant. Our driver's eyes combed the sides of the path and looked for any movement. The two Jeeps in front of us started turning another corner when all of a sudden, our driver kicked it in reverse and pointed about 30 feet in front of us. The elephant hadn't left; he had hidden himself up on a little hill in the foliage and was now barreling down from the left after the Jeep in front of us.

All I can say is, thank god he chose to go for that Jeep and not cut us off from the group. We were the ones who had to go in reverse, and there's no way we could have outrun him in that way.

Instead, he gave chase to the two Jeeps in front at full speed, trumpeting and crashing down the road. We watched them all disappear around another bend and then high tailed it out of there in the other direction.

Everyone in our Jeep was worried for the others, but luckily the Jeeps were faster than the elephants as long as they didn't hit any major potholes or blockages in the road. We found out later that the elephant had chased the two Jeeps for a good half a kilometer, stopping every once and a while before sprinting again and coming for them. Eventually he gave up and headed for another part of the forest.

It was all a big adrenaline rush at the time, but looking back....
If our driver hadn't spotted the tusker coming down from the hill, he would have side swiped us and easily could have flipped the car over.

Tasha, Chrissy and Jeremy got a great video of the Tusker chasing them down the road, complete with Chrissy's screams and hilarious commentary. Apparently their driver thought that their reactions were priceless (he’s probably been in the situation a million times before) and would slow down to let the elephant catch up before zooming off again. He was laughing the whole time.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of the big guy (not enough time between not crapping my pants and finding my camera), but I did a get a picture of another, tamer, male in musth for comparison. You can try to imagine him as the charger. Male elephants in musth have a gland near their eye that drips this pheromone loaded stuff down their face (which you can make out in the second picture). Musth makes them go absolutely batshit crazy, which is why that particular male was so keen on crushing a Jeep. If the elephant that goes into musth is part of a herd, no other animals will go into it at the same time. It's a dominance thing.

Musth gland

After that happened, the rest of the trip went by smoothly, with no near run-ins with the wildlife. Once the safaris were over, we'd come back to a good home cooked meal, some plaintain chips and sit around the fire. One day, we made a visit to one of the ranger's homes and drank ginger tea with him and his wife. They were a lovely couple; the wife reminded me a lot of my mother. She talked about how a lot of rangers have trouble finding wives who will follow them out into the wilderness. A lot of rangers may not even marry because they don't want to always leave their wives at home in the suburbs or cities. But she loved the forest, and was happy to follow her husband out there and work with the plants and animals. She was a botanist. This particular ranger had won a prestigious national award for his work planting trees all across the area. He had planted upwards of 300,000 which would provide new habitats to tons of animals and insects. The couple was so full of pride and were obviously very supportive of each other.

I loved their home. It was completely decked out in nature stuff; they had a spotted deer pen holder, pictures of "save the elephants" and "save the tigers" all over the walls and little wooden animal carvings. It just had a great, open feel. With the Jeep parked out front and a view of the forest right out the window, it was a nature lover's dream. I could imagine waking up to the sound of peacocks and cicadas and watching a little herd of Sambar deer in the front yard over a cup of coffee.

Besides visiting with the rangers, Dr. Kumar was summoned to look at a wild elephant calf which had been found abandoned in the forest by a road. We weren't able to accompany him (it was a touchy situation), but he was escorted into the forest by an entourage of rangers and watchers to help care for the baby. A tiger or panther had grabbed it on the flank and it had somehow gotten away, probably with the help of an angry mother elephant. The wound had gotten infected and filled with maggots, and as a result the baby couldn't keep up with the rest of the herd. After a while, even though elephants are extremely social and stick close to their families, they will give up on a member who can no longer support themselves.

The wound was cleaned with iodine and antibiotics and anti-inflammatories were administered. A few watchers were stationed in trees to keep an eye on the baby over night. Unfortunately, the prognosis did not look good for the baby since the leg wasn't weight bearing and he had already been injured for so long. Most everyone secretly prayed that the elephant would pass peacefully or at least be eaten by a predator so that it wouldn't starve. It was out of the question to take the baby to the camp since it was once wild and there isn't a lot of money to care for more animals that would need intensive therapy.

Between the deer and the elephant calf, it seems that there's a panther or a tiger out there who needs more practice hunting! One bite doesn't get the job done...it just makes things messy.

To end the trip, we woke up early on Saturday and took a short, elephantback safari into the forest. The mahouts steered the big beasts by sitting behind their heads and nudging their ears gently with their bare feet. Another assistant walked behind the elephants, muttering commands softly.
Riding on elephant was extremely cool. They walked very quietly despite their massive size, and their feet left barely any foot prints in the dirt. You could see over the tops of all the bushes and lantana plants and could hear everything for miles around. The neatest part was hearing the elephants breathe; it sounded like someone breathing through a snorkel. Once and a while they'd get a little naughty and pull plants from the trail, munching as they walked. Overall, though, the mahouts barely needed to do anything to control them.

So...new goal in life...retire to Mudumalai and work with a mahout, or become a ranger's wife. It seems to be an extremely peaceful life. Wake up, bathe your elephant, feed your elephant, feed yourself. Hang around a beautiful forest camp and eat delicious food made with coconut oil. Take an evening safari on elephant back. Pick up some sticks, direct some angry tuskers out of a garden. Sleep. Repeat.

Sounds perfect to me.