Wasim’s trunk pauses midair as he reaches for a bamboo shoot. His mahout, M Eswaran, calls out a command from a distance and in a split second, the elephant changes course. The shoot is far from his reach, and hangs above a slippery clump of grass: Eswaran had alerted his elephant.
The 28 elephants of Tamil Nadu Forest Department’s Theppakadu camp at Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) in the Nilgiris, are cared for by some of the country’s most experienced mahouts, many of whom have transformed the lives of their elephants.
