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Road Safety
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Well dont ever switch off your engine coz god alone knows if another elephant charges from the side you may end up stuck just starting your engine with a fright. Dont honk and dont think man i own a scorpio and nothing can ever happen. Elephants have few competitors and bus and trucks also respect that
Thanks for the initiator for getting me know the dont's. We were roaming (in car) inside the bandipur and mudumalai forests areas from 22.30 to 23.30 hrs approximately during our last visit. While returning from Ooty next day, we got this captured & if I had read this thread earlier, Iam sure we would have not got our from the car
@surprise: you did get one hell of a snap.. Either you have a big zoom or were quite close to get this..
Quote:
Originally Posted by Surprise
(Post 661834)
Thanks for the initiator for getting me know the dont's. We were roaming (in car) inside the bandipur and mudumalai forests areas from 22.30 to 23.30 hrs approximately during our last visit. While returning from Ooty next day, we got this captured & if I had read this thread earlier, Iam sure we would have not got our from the car
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Remember the first trip that I did thru Bandipur (on the way to Kannur from Bng)... saw a lone tusker; reversed back to have a good look; (dam, i was just 200mtr away!!!); the big fella got pissed off and started charging; luckily had the engine running and I didn't stall when I did a sudden move; drove a good 2km before I turned back and checked!
Learnt my lesson that day; guess my black alto was also not that much of a pleasing color for these tuskers!
the recent one to Ooty didn't bring any tuskers, but there were a load of deers! but what I did notice was that there were some smart a***** who had got down from their vehicles, walked into the forest and taking photos! God bless the animals!
great pictures. After reading this thread, I dont know if I should wish to see wild elephants while driving to Wayanad or not... Anyway, I will be crossing the place around 11 or 12am so, guess no problem.
OT: A Wild elephant on rampage video captured. Video at
http://www.youtube.com/v/Is_JvIQySFk
You can see there was a vehicle with engine off and being overturned by the elephant. Its not a small car or something but a elephant can do anything when angry.
Its never late to reply on such topics....especially something which is close to me (more so now that I have move to Chennai)....
The photo which Csenthil has posted is just before the "Karnataka - Tamil Nadu border on the Gundlupet - Gudalur road. This particular spot is close to a river which is why its very critical.
Very rarely you will find elephants blocking the road in either the "Gundlupet - Bathery" or the "Gundlupet - Gudalur" road because you have heavy traffic right through all 24 hours. The more likely possibility would be the smaller roads (like the Nagarhole road etc.) where traffic is infrequent. Some of the points to remember always.
1. Elephants in a herd tend to react normally - Exceptions "When a very young baby is part of the herd when the cow elephant is extremely protective"
2. Tuskers are mostly ones who roam individually and are the ones you need to be careful of....somebody has talked of musth...tuskers whether they are in musth or otherwise always be careful....they are extremely unpredictable keep sufficient ground between you and the elephant(s) always.
3. Elephants always prefer to do a mock charge initially, seldom do they do a full blown charge, keep this in mind and react sensibily when you see a mock charge. I remember once when an elephant charged our safari vehicle on the mudumalai gudalur road even before we had seen and stopped near them. The reason was not our vehicle but the elephant was at its wits end because of the vehicles which passed the spot before us. (Incidentally the herd had a baby elephant which was hardly a couple of months old)
4. Please keep in mind "Wild Animals always have the right of way" hence allow them to cross the road at all points even if it means something as small as a Deer.
5. Never ever step out of your car....that one step to get a better picture could turn out to be fatal as elephants can run faster than man at all times
6.Last but not the least..never drive fast in the forests...you may never know when you would come across what....its safer for you and the animals that we drive at a speed which allows us to enjoy the wilderness and allow us to react to unexpected visitors on the road....
Cheers...
Nice thread. Would add one more point. Give enough buffer time after the animal has crossed. In Nagarahole, after sunset, but still not too dark, this happened to me. We were just driving back to our home stay, when suddenly we saw the herd crossing and applied the brakes a little clumsily (may be this is why what happened later). Waited for the herd to cross and disappeared into the forest on the other side. But I had a great shock when crossing that point, I saw one of the elephants did not vanish but was watching 'us cross'. Its huge head was tracking us as we slowly drove past it, less than 50 feet from her.
Quote:
Originally Posted by anb
(Post 1775926)
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Perfect use of Shock and Awe !
The jeep driver is truly aware of the ways of the elephant or else he would have pissed in his pants and taken flight .
Wow!
Does the guy really know his stuff or its just Don Quixote at his best ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by gd1418
(Post 620682)
Well a whole lot of do's & dont's if you run into a herd of elephants. Last year I visited the Rajaji National Park in Uttaranchal near Haridwar which is an elephant country.
I was in my Safari and I was told by the forest official that in case I encounter elephants then I should stop and keep the engine running. He said that the sound of a diesel engine makes them a bit wary. BTW, all the vehicles that were allowed inside the forest were diesels including the forest vehicles.
How true is that?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hvkumar
(Post 620781)
Surprisingly, in most other WLS, only petrol vehicles are allowed since they are quieter! (although animals do have a keener sense of hearing than humans) I think engine noise would only irritate and unnerve wild life.
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Although a lot of WLS in the north and north-east use petrol Gypsies, it is because most of the forests are not as dense as the ones down south. A diesel vehicle is used in Elephant country since it gives the elephant sometime to decide what he wants to do and eleminates the eliment of surprise. A Elephant upon hearing the engine can decide whether he wants to move away or stay there. When an elephant is surprised, it often get agitated and charges.
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