We were off to the national park today where most of the elephant work is done, with Prem (the local AR chair) and Ghopal so we ordered a packed lunch for four - when we collected it there was enough for a dozen with biryani and samosas and all sorts - but more of that anon.
The journey there was spent in conversation with Prem who is a lovely man. He is officially on holiday for the month ... but that seems to mean that he just does half a day and only preaches on three out of the four Sundays....and only answers his mobile to people he knows! He leads a church of 700 families without any other paid leadership so it is a heavy task but he has a real passion for his work and for caring for creation so it was good to spend time with him.
The park itself is 30 kms long and only about 3 kms wide on average so it is difficult to manage - and difficult for the elepants to work out where they should be too! We met up with Nishan who is following the herds and working out their movements as a part of a Masters study supervised by Vijay. Apparently there are quite a few illegal stills on the edge of the park and the elephants have taken to raiding them and drinking the contents - with not unexpected consequences as alcohol has a similar impact on elephants as on humans. So by lunchtime we had not seen any elephants but we had talked lots about them and with two local guides we were now seven - so there was plenty of lunch for all - sandwiches for Jean and I for tea - and chicken for Nishan and his guide as they camped in the forest with the elephants...
We did see some bears though - the park is used as a half way house for mistreated animals - lions, tigers and lots of bears - the latter were wandering round a huge enclosure and watching us with interest, much better than dancing on the end of a rope which was what they had been doing before. (Photos - the park, a sloth bear, and Prem)
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