More Entries

Archives

You Can't Make Life
By Steve Winter

"You can make many pictures, but you cannot make life." — Konwar

Here in Kaziranga, I need to show what it is like for the forest guards who patrol on elephant through the high grass and unexpectedly come upon a rhino. I also want to show the intimate view of the animal through both high grasses and amidst the newly-burned grasses with faces black from grazing. I knew this would be a dangerous picture to get—and that riding an elephant would be the only successful way.

Being atop an elephant is quite a restrictive way of shooting – always looking down on the animal you’re shooting, which takes away its power. From experience, I always try to place my camera traps low to shoot at eye level, or up at an animal. The other day I was laying on the ground photographing a big tusker elephant – this is a much better way of showing this majestic species as long as you can get up and away safely and quickly!

So, in this instance we mounted a clamp with a tripod head on a 13-foot long bamboo pole and put a camera on it. I used a radio receiver to trigger the camera. We had ourselves a “polecam” which would allow me to shoot from more of a “rhino’s-eye” view.

Our elephant, Gavvar, is a Ganesh (meaning single tusk) tusker. Back in February, when Doug Chadwick (the writer on the story), took part in an elephant census, Gavvar was chosen especially for him. This elephant is known to be fearless around rhinos, directed by a great mahout who Doug reported would instruct Gavvar to charge any rhino that posed a possible threat, frightening the troublemakers back to their grazing.

Our first attempt with this polecam technique was a few weeks back, out on the morning tourist elephant ride with Konwar. We made adjustments, and tried again last week with Gavvar during a sojourn out to Gendarmari guard camp during a very dreary day out in the park. We got good pictures but I wasn’t satisfied with the quality of light. I had to keep trying.

The other day we found an area in Gendarmari where the grass had been recently burned, but still had high grass and forest close by. So we headed to the camp at 4 AM. The elephant and mahout were just arriving when we got there. I had asked for a four-seater as Konwar did not think we could hold the pole by riding “horseback” on the elephant like the guards. We also made sure Gavvar was comfortable with our polecam since the tourist elephant didn’t like having a pole lowered next to him. But Gavvar quickly became accustomed to it and to the sound of the shutter firing. So we all loaded up and went out for awhile, then came back to regroup as the animals in the area did not like the camera or the elephant, and ran away.

We had sa (tea) in camp with the guards, and then headed out again. I rode sidesaddle so I could lean out and get shots of the mahout and the rhinos. Konwar managed the polecam, Gabriel took video, and our favorite guard, Hazarika, took up the rear with his rifle.

We crossed a small stream and headed into a forest that opened up into a wide grassland. There was a beat up rhino with a lot of character who made a false charge at us, but moved up onto a rise a short ways away. The camera and radio control were working great this time so Konwar instructed the mahout to follow that rhino (I defer many decisions to Konwar as he has so much experience with the wildlife in Kaziranga). Well… our elephant was just getting ready to take his first step up the small embankment when the rhino, standing higher than us, charged full speed with jaws wide open, ready to attack the elephant.

Hazarika fired a warning shot into the ground in front of the rhino. I was shooting with the camera on the polecam, but this rhino didn’t stop and rammed the pole before we could get it out of the way, knocking the camera off the pole. Gavvar was caught off guard, maybe scared by the rifle shot AND the rhino, and turned around and fled—the rhino trucking along after us. It’s wild to see such a huge animal move so quickly: adult Indian rhinos weigh between 3,500 and 6,500 pounds, but can run at up to 35 miles per hour over short distances. We held on for dear life. The rhino was grunting and attacking Gavvar from behind with no intention of slowing down. Our elephant was trumpeting and growling as dust kicked up everywhere.

We had heard of a rhino attacking a domestic elephant once before. In that case the guard had to shoot the rhino because it would not stop climbing up the elephant. That story flashed through my mind, and I was horrified at the possible outcome.

This rhino was on the opposite side of the elephant, so I could only glimpse the whole event out of the corner of my eye. Hazarika, being the man in back, had to try and turn completely around to fire more warning shots. The pole also became a defensive weapon, and it was hurriedly passed back to Hazarika. Everyone started screaming at the rhino as Hazarika made stabs at it with the bamboo. I grabbed the wide angle to shoot backwards with one hand—but since I was sidesaddle, my movement made the elephant lurch to the right, and I almost fell off.

Then finally the rhino changed direction and we gained quick distance from it. Gavvar was so freaked out he would not move for minutes which gave us all time to make sure we were okay. Hazarika had cut the tip of his finger –the worst injury inflicted out of the whole event. We were worried that the elephant had been bitten badly though luckily that was not the case.

Once Gavvar calmed down we went back to the field to retrieve the camera and other things that we lost in the chase. This was up there with one of the top three scariest moments of my career, but with only some small cuts and bad bruises all of us were OK.

Watch Gabe’s video and you’ll get a better idea of what it was like. I recommend that when you get to the rhino attack you scroll through frame by frame to see the rhino's teeth and gums! At 37 secs into the video you can also see the length of the field that we were chased through, from one end to the other.

Video by Gabriel DeLoach

...More normal things happen here, too. Like the hour we spent the other day watching a group of otters frolicking and wrestling in the river. I’ll be sure to balance out this week’s excitement next week.

Comments

Latest Entries