Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-01-25
Powerful Elephant Herd Is Routed by Vicious Swarm
Famous Hunter Tells Of Big Animals Fe

, likes being disturbed. Some human
| beings are like this, especially in the
! morning.
| A few years ago in one district of
which I was in charge there was a
very big tusker which used to frighten
] the forest guards and other men
| working in the forest by trumpetfng
| and threatening to charge them, but
| the only time he ever killed any one
was one evening when he picked up
| two native women and threw them
| against trees, killing both.
| AS far as could be ascertained by
| inquiry, the old tusker was standing
on a narrow path which led through
heavy forest on the hillside. The two
women had been cutting grass up
! above, and were coming down the
| path with bundles of grass on their
! heads. Moving noiselessly with bare
! feet and with the wind blowing from
the elephant toward them, they ran
| right into the huge animal before they
were aware of his presence, and he
simply picked them up and threw
them aside. He did not, however,
| trample or otherwise mutilate the
| bodies.
THE wild elephant is a most inter
Il esting study. / have had a good
deal to do with the rowing kind, as
in one district in which l spent three
years there was a large herd, num-
being. about rs, at one end OF the
district, on the Sarda River, which
was the Nepal border. with other wild
elephants, probably aggregating about
20, in the heavy forests on the lower
range of the Himalayas, some so
miles farther TO the west.
A railway ran north and south
through the middle of the district up
10 the base OF the Himalayas, but the
elephant herds never crossed the rail-
way line, although the big eastern
herd during the cold weather split up
and wandered about in small parties
all through the jungles between the
Sarda River and the railway. fire.
quently staying for days at a time
within quite a short dist ,lnce of the
railway line. During the rainy sea-
son this big herd concentrated on the
bank of the Sarda River, where there
Were extensive bamboo jungles, the
green shoots of which at this season
form their favorite food.
Early in the cold weather. about
November they moved eastward, and
one of their routes was over a very
steep and almost precipitous range of
hills into a big valley inside the Him
alayas, down which flowed the Nan
dur River. So steep was this range
of hills that one unaCquainted with
the climbing abilities of the elephant
would have thought it impossible for
such massive animals to get over II.
| once climbed this hill in the
track of these elephants. In most
places the ground was much too steep
to walk over, and one frequently had
to climb, using hands as we'll as feet.
These elephants were strictly pre-
served, as everywhere in India There
is a prevailing idea that elephants
when i'll and about to die make their
way to some special and secluded
spot-a kind of elephant cemetery. 1
do not believe that there is any truth
in this tale, at any rate a far as India
is concerned.
! know of two cases where ele-
plants belonging to the big herd l
have mentioned were found dead
One. a large tusker, which must have
been dead for several months, was
found in dense forest on the outer
slopes of the steep range of hills men,
toned above by an officer of the Sth
Hussars, who was out shooting. The
other one was found by the forest off,
Ger lying dead in the water of the
Nandur River itself.
1t was a fortunte thing that he
found it while quite fresh, and was
able to have it cut up and taken out
of the water. This river, like others
which flow out of the -Himalayas in
that neighborhood, strikes a belt of
moraine formation on reaching level
ground and flows. underground for
several miles untiE on reaching the
clay formation farther south, it rises
to the surface and continues its
course.
The belt of moraine formation is
covered with a layer of rich soil
which grows excellent rice and other
crops, but the only water available is
that supplied by small stone-lined
canal with it's distributaries, which
is taken out of the river just before
it reaches the fiat country. Had this
elephant been allowed to decompose
in the river 1t would have been I'M
pleasant for the villagers lower down,
who depend entirely on these canals
for drinking water as well as for irri-
cation.
There was nothing to show what
had caused the death of either of
these elephants. They certainly had
not been shot, and unless we adopt
the unlikely theory that they had been
bitten by poisonous snakes they must
be held to have died of natural
causes.