Elephant Herd Near Munnar, Kerala

During a visit to Munnar we took a boat ride, on a man-made reservoir, in hopes of seeing elephants. The ticket seller and the boat man told us they had seen a herd early in the day, but I brushed it off thinking he just wanted us to buy the ticket. Binoculars in hand I took command of the boat telling my father to cover the left side, my aunt to cover the right side, and my uncle to cover the back while I covered the all-important front. After 15 minutes, and reaching the end of the lake before we had to turn back, I was sorely dissappointed. Then suddenly I had my aunt voice barely over the load noise of the propeller. She was pointing to a patch of trees behind us.

There they were, a herd of elepahants. Immediately I pulled the bionuclars and scanned the treeline. Some of the herd was hidden behind the trees. I counted five exposed eleis. Then I caught sight of a baby elei. Too cute! (Wait, did I just say cute?) The boat motor was cut off. Everyone took turn with the binoculars, throwing out words: wow, amazing, too good and why can't they be closer. We watched them for 10 minutes and then started back.

I tell you, its amazing seeing these beautiful creatures. It pained me to think about their future in India and around the world. Ironically, just a mile or two from this place some bastards were cutting down trees to expand a tea plantation. To get my mind off that, I turned around to my aunt and asked her why she was looking at the back when I had told her to cover the right side:) The look on her face: "oh the sun must be getting to him".

"Nature's great masterpiece, an elephant; the only harmless great thing." - John Donne