How do we coexist?
This picture is from the periphery of BRT Tiger Reserve in Southeast Karnataka, home to a variety of wild beings, and the Soliga indigenous community. If you notice the chain tied to the elephant's leg you would infer that it is a captured/domesticated elephant, and you would be correct. This is Gajendra, captured by the forest department many years ago, and now roams around the forest department quarters as well as inside the forest. You cannot, however, see the other end of the chain. Gajendra is not tied to anything from the other end. He roams freely across the highway and on forest trails. Here, he is grazing close to a Soliga settlement inside the forest in the morning. A time that coincides with the Soliga residents having to catch the single bus in the day that leads them out of the forest to the city, to schools, places of work, and more. We were coming out of the forest after the morning safari, when we came across this scene. A couple of Soliga families climbed up to the...
