देखो! हाथी! (Dekho! Hathi! – Look! Elephant!) my nephew shouted. So I looked.
I just managed to catch this shot before the elephant disappeared again. It’s (obviously) not a wild one, but nor is it there for the benefit of tourists, who never come within a hundred miles of this spot. It’s not even being used as an instrument of extortion (a common use for elephants in India*) – there’s rarely anyone around this area with anything worth extorting...
Central India, December 29th 2010.
* “Sorry, my elephant seems to be blocking the road. For a small (or not so small) fee I could probably persuade him/her to let you past.” And numerous variations on the theme. The elephant may even (appear to) be unsupervised – elephants are quite capable of being taught which notes to accept and which to reject.
This may be less common now than it was in the 1980s, I don’t know. On the other hand, hold-ups with guns may be more common. And much scarier.
©Clive K Semmens 2010