A jumbo-special Holi! Vidyut Jammwal bonds and makes a splash with elephants in Jaipur

'Junglee' star Vidyut Jammwal celebrated Holi by bonding with elephants and being endlessly sprayed with pond water by them. He tells us why, despite having the best time of his life during the film’s shoot, he was always respectful.

For elephants, a rollick in the water is just a regular day. But for most of us who don’t live in #waterbaby-style Instagrammable locations, Holi presents the perfect opportunity. So when Vidyut Jammwal found out about Jaipur’s Haathi Gaon, a safe stomping ground for pachyderms, he knew that’s where he was celebrating Holi this year. The star of the upcoming film 'Junglee' spent his day bonding with the elephants, lovingly applying a touch of gulal to their foreheads, wading into ponds on elephant-back and being sprayed endlessly by his bearer with pond water. But Vidyut didn’t mind; it was a warm day and the elephants wanted to keep their backs cool, he just happened to be in the way.

That’s exactly what he learnt during the shoot of 'Junglee' – the elephants decide, not the humans. “Whenever I was with the elephants, I had to be feeling a hundred percent. Like earlier, when I tried to get on top of one of these elephants, I knew she didn’t want me up. So I was aware and I knew she’d topple me down, which she did. I just landed on my feet because I was careful. On 'Junglee’s set too, every time I was with the elephants I was having a lot of fun. But if I didn’t feel it from them, I didn’t go there. They’re as moody as human beings,” Vidyut tells us.

'GATHER AROUND, CHILDREN’: Lakshmi, Gomti, Shakuntala, Muskan and Tara graciously spent their day with Vidyut and schoolkids at Jaipur’s Haathi Gaon. The kids, of course, couldn’t take their eyes off the majestic elephants

When he was a kid, Vidyut says his mom told him, “Agar tum haathi ke neeche se nikal jaao toh tumhari sau saal umar ho jati hai.” Then with a grin, he adds, “So I shot a video in Chiang Mai, where I crossed from under the elephant five times. Greedy me! Mom was happy with the first one only. She didn’t care, ‘kahin dab mat jaana’. She was just, ‘very good!’.” That and 'Junglee’s promos might give you the impression that Vidyut was perfectly at ease around his mammoth co-stars, but what he says next surprises you – “I’m always scared around them. Always.” The actor explains why that fear is essential. “Hence they get the respect they ought to,” he says, “Fear keeps you on the edge. When I was standing on the elephant, it’s petrifying, by the way. It does scare you but being scared makes you more careful. Respect the being. You don’t fool around with them. You have to respect boundaries with them.”

It was that respect that helped Vidyut not be lulled by the myth of the ‘gentle giants’ and always be aware of their power. “You just keep hearing it, ‘They’re very gentle’. Gentle? Have you seen them angry? You’ll be surprised,” says Vidyut. That’s the dilemma conservation has faced often – people are driven by their fear to harm animals, or by misguided love or arrogance to get too close to them, which gets them, and often, the animal, killed. “Honestly, we should start with respect rather than love,” says Vidyut, “My relationship with my mother is more of respect, and then love comes second. There’s no first and second, but respect is the first thing – that gets the love. We need to respect these creatures, not only for their size, but for what we don’t know about them. We know nothing about them.”

Vidyut explains that the ‘gentle’ branding fails to recognise something far deeper in the elephant. “We just say, oh they’re gentle. But it’s actually that they’re so aware. They will never bump into a human being. You put five people in a small space, we’ll be pushing each other. But on set, you have 20-30 elephants, they don’t bump into each other, it’s amazing. So much awareness of this huge size of theirs. Their awareness is superior, far more superior.”

Vidyut has also nailed some killer Kalaripayattu moves in the movie, and he says the martial art helped him understand that awareness better. “What can’t be noticed by the common eye is that when they stand, their weight is not on their legs, it’s in their centre. In the Vedic science of Kalaripayattu, they say that if you start imbibing what you can from any creature – it could be a monkey, squirrel, giraffe, elephant – you can experience many lives in just one. We move like every animal. So what we imbibe from elephants is not their size, it’s how they keep themselves glued to the ground. And it’s not because of their weight, it’s because they keep themselves centred, grounded,” he says. To give a demo, he digs his feet into the ground in a warrior pose and asks two guys to try to tip him over. As intended, they fail. “What Kalaripayattu does, it explains to you everything you need to imbibe from them,” says Vidyut.

What Vidyut is hoping 'Junglee' achieves is a greater awareness about elephants and what they need to survive today. The film deals with poaching and the immediate danger they face of extinction. “Yes, in general, I don’t think they’re meant to interact with humans. But the ones we worked with in Thailand were domesticated. Their survival depends on learning how to deal with us. And that for me is a tragedy. That to protect them, we first have to tame them out of their natural habitat. But 'Junglee' is trying to show them at their most natural. We’re not making a song and dance about it, not preaching. We’ve not ‘taught’ anything, but people, especially children, will learn so much. I’ve realised that education, if it’s fun, will teach you. 'Junglee' expresses this fun.”

However, Vidyut’s idea of ‘fun’ during our shoot was still about educating, we realise, when he says, “One of the things that were running in my head when I was on top of the elephant was that we need to do this more in our country. We had to shoot the film in Thailand, but spending my day here, playing Holi with them, I felt so good that I’m doing this in my country. I felt so good that people will know about this place where they can come and really enjoy the elephants. That was my idea of fun (laughs).”

Our shoot started with five pachyderms, but once in the water, three of them just decided to roll onto their side and kick around in the pond. Like Vidyut told us, the elephants decide the day, not us!

And as you plan to have your fun today, Vidyut wants to leave you with this one thought: “With the elephants, I was always having a lot of fun. But it always came with being respectful of what they wanted, how they felt about me being around. I couldn’t cross any lines with them. That’s exactly how you ought to play your Holi too.”

Put that on your pichkaari!

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Wild elephants kill 1,700 Indians in four years

New Delhi: Encounters with wild elephants have been responsible for more than 1,700 deaths in India over the last four years, prompting the government to step up measures to minimise potential clashes with humans.

Between 2015 and 2018, the government paid out about Rs2.26 billion (Dh117 million or $32 million) in compensation for loss of life and damage to crops and property as a result of such encounters, according to statistics released on Friday by the environment ministry. It was responding to a lawmaker’s question in parliament.

The environment ministry figures also showed 373 elephants have been killed since 2015 as a result of electrocution, poaching, poisoning and being hit by trains as they wander from their natural habitat into areas inhabited by humans.

The government is using technologies ranging from tagging the animals with radio collars to alerting local residents via text messages and the WhatsApp messaging service to limit potential elephant encounters and damage caused by them.

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:
https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india/wild-elephants-kill-1700-indians-in-four-years-1.61988506

Wild elephants kill 1,700 Indians in four years

New Delhi: Encounters with wild elephants have been responsible for more than 1,700 deaths in India over the last four years, prompting the government to step up measures to minimise potential clashes with humans.

Between 2015 and 2018, the government paid out about Rs2.26 billion (Dh117 million or $32 million) in compensation for loss of life and damage to crops and property as a result of such encounters, according to statistics released on Friday by the environment ministry. It was responding to a lawmaker’s question in parliament.

The environment ministry figures also showed 373 elephants have been killed since 2015 as a result of electrocution, poaching, poisoning and being hit by trains as they wander from their natural habitat into areas inhabited by humans.

The government is using technologies ranging from tagging the animals with radio collars to alerting local residents via text messages and the WhatsApp messaging service to limit potential elephant encounters and damage caused by them.

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:
https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india/wild-elephants-kill-1700-indians-in-four-years-1.61988506

Maharashtra forest department's elephant camp welcomes its newest resident, Saee

The state forest department's only camp for elephants at Kamlapur in Gadchiroli district has a new resident. A female elephant calf 'Saee' was born on Tuesday to Rani and Ajit.

The elephant camp, which was established around 50 years ago in Sironcha taluka, has a total of eight elephants, including matriarch Basanti, who is aged around 55 and alpha male Ajit (23). These elephants have been kept at the camp ever since their use for timber logging was stopped. Saee's birth has taken the numbers to nine.

Tushar Chavan, Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF), Sironcha, said the calf had been birthed with help from veternerians and forest staff.

"Two veterinarians examined Saee and found that all parameters are normal. She is a healthy baby. Rani was under observation for the last three days. The labour started Monday night," added Chavan.

The state forest department plans to develop the elephant camp to create a unique tourist experience for visitors, who will be able to touch and feed these semi-captive pachyderms in their natural habitat during prescribed timings. The state government plans to wean local villagers from Left wing extremism and illicit timber felling using the visitor inflows in the area.

Chavan said work on tourist amenities would start after they received funds. The project is expected to be completed next year.

Basanti, who is now the matriarch, was brought to the camp in 1962 and mated with Mahalinga, (now dead). Her progeny are Ajit (1994) and Mangala (1989). Ajit sired Lakshmi (who has been shifted to the Tadoba Andhari tiger reserve), Priyanka, Ganesh, Rani and Aditya.

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https://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-maharashtra-forest-department-s-elephant-camp-welcomes-its-newest-resident-saee-2698578

Railways to introduce sensor technology to check elephant deaths on tracks

New Delhi, Dec 13: In order to reduce the increasing incidents of elephant
deaths on railway tracks, Indian Railway has implemented an innovative
method. The ministry is now looking forward to introducing a sensor built
by a professor at IIT-Delhi to prevent elephant deaths on railway tracks.

Subrat Kar, a professor at IIT-Delhi, was working on a device to curb
elephant deaths due to train accidents since 2008. In 2014, his research
gained momentum when the Indian Railways extended nancial support
and provided him with a grant of Rs 30 lakhs.

The researcher has created a new type of heat-and-motion sensors which
they say can keeps tabs on these animals' movements through their natural
habitats and alert authorities whenever an elephant herd decides to cross a
railway.

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:
https://www.oneindia.com/india/railways-introduce-sensor-technology-to-check-elephant-deaths-on-tracks-2821787.html