In a few minutes, the sun will go down over the hills around, its reflection in the water receding. Chella (name changed to protect privacy), 54, watches the horizon as he sits on a rock in the forests of Naniyala of Ramakuppam mandal in Chittoor district. There are swashes of red across the now yellow-orange sky. The forest watcher looks in the direction of Tamil Nadu, at the trees silhouetted against the landscape, the dry deciduous forest now green after the rains. It’s been 20 years of work, without a holiday — no weekend, no Deepavali. At any time now, he hopes he’ll get a call, saying he can go home.
Hit by malnutrition after years of toil in the Koundinya Wildlife Sanctuary that is spread over about 360 sq km, coupled with the adverse effects of alcohol, he believes he is fit enough to work a few more years in the dangerous job of chasing away herds of wild elephants back into the wilderness of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Employed by the State Forest Department, he and 25 other base camp watchers or trackers in the Ramakuppam mandal of the Kuppam forest range, drive away elephants that often pillage fields or attack habitations for food. They also keep the pachyderms away from ground-level transformers and low-slung overhead exposed cables installed by the Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (SPDCL), the government electricity department.
