Rajan, the Swimming Elephant
By Nancy J. McGee
When I told my friends I was going to travel twelve-and-one-half time zones away, to India and the Andaman Islands to film an elephant swimming, they all responded, “Elephants swim?” This one does.
Rajan is a fifty-six year-old Asian bull elephant, a real tusker. He was brought to the Andaman Islands to work in the logging industry more years ago than anyone can remember. By day, Rajan was a beast of burden, laboring in the forest, moving logs as the mahout (elephant handler) directed. With the heat of the day and trunk-breaking work behind him, Rajan lumbered into the cool ocean with his mate of twenty years. It was she who taught him to swim. Sadly, no one remembers much about her.
With a moratorium decreed by the Indian government on logging in the Andaman Islands, Rajan found himself out of a job. Around the same time, Rajan’s long-time mate was bitten by a cobra, and after a three-day struggle, succumbed to the venomous serpent.
In an attempt to generate revenue from an elephant retired from logging who eats 150 kg of vegetation a day, Rajan’s owner moved him to the island of Havelock to perform in a photo shoot for a major soft drink company. Deeply depressed by the loss of his mate, Rajan did not live up to his end of the contract.
Seeing the need for a period of mourning and a suitable retirement, the owners of Barefoot at Havelock Jungle Resort purchased Rajan. For the last eight years, he has roamed the jungles of Havelock Island, cavorted with his two non-swimming pachyderm girlfriends, and swum in the azure-blue waters of the Bay of Bengal, off what is now aptly called Elephant Beach.
Elephants are extremely strong, social, and intelligent. In the wild, Asian elephants may live to sixty or seventy years of age. The Asian elephant is listed as endangered on the World Conservation Union's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Animals. Scientists estimate the world population of Asian elephants to be around 60,000. Their population has been in steady decline due to poaching and human encroachment. While the desire for elephant ivory has been one of the major factors in the dramatic decline of the world's elephant population, the Asian elephant's demise can be attributed mostly to loss of its habitat.
The Andaman Islands are governed by India. An archipelago of 572 islands, it lays on the eastern end of the Bay of Bengal, between India and Thailand. The Andaman Sea separates the Andaman Islands from Thailand. The Andaman Islands have been home to three indigenous tribes, one of whom is still refusing to have contact with the outside world. This tribe lives in primitive isolation, driving away potential visitors with accurately fired arrows from handcrafted bows. As ships steam past and planes fly over, these Sentinelese natives remain set in their traditional ways, living in harmony with nature on the remote North Sentinel Island.
Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman Islands and located on South Andaman Island, is the port of embarkation. Daily flights from Indian mainland cities of Chennai and Calcutta are the only connections to Port Blair by air. Bureaucrats in India love to stamp documents, baggage tags and nearly anything else they can rubber-stamp. A “Restricted Area Permit” is required upon reaching Port Blair. Carry it with you. It will be inspected, documented and stamped at every stop along the way. The side-to-side-bobbing head of an Andaman Islander may cause great confusion for a Westerner asking a direct question. I soon learned that what seemed like an answer of, “Maybe,” was the islander’s body language for, “Yes.”
A bustling city of auto-rickshaws, mopeds, and cows, Port Blair is a constant cacophony of honking horns. Frequented by European backpackers, it offers comfortable lodging and dining, though far from opulent. A government ferry or private open-boat charter makes the three to five hour journey from Port Blair to Havelock Island. There are two ferry choices, the slow boat and the fast boat. While neither is the Queen Mary, the fast boat offers a slightly cooler main cabin. The final leg of the journey is a forty-minute jeep ride on a winding dirt road through jungle and farmland to the Barefoot Jungle Resort, home to Rajan, the swimming elephant.
Arriving at Elephant Beach early in the morning, I am both excited and anxious about swimming with an elephant. A magazine article twenty years ago peaked my interest. I vowed then to photograph an elephant from under water before I hung up my fins. Gear tested and donned, high definition camera at the ready, I shout, “Cue the elephant!”
Accompanied by his mahout, Rajan lumbers to the beach for his morning plunge. I had entered the water before Rajan, anxious to be in place for this much-anticipated photo shoot. Rajan, who has done this many times before, seemed to ignore me imperiously. He takes his time wading into the surf, stopping to test the waters with his enormous proboscis, and seeming to take great delight in running the show completely. I am already in neck-deep water, focusing on Rajan’s distant approach from both above and below the surface. Out of the distant gloom the white of his ivory tusks appears followed by legs the thickness of tree trunks. Suddenly, a three-and-one-half meter tall bull elephant towers above me. Again Rajan pauses for effect, and a perfect opportunity for over/under shots. Two more great strides and Rajan is submerged in a weightless freedom known only to those who venture into the sea. Rajan looks at me with a soft, blinking eye, his lashes long and graceful. I think he is smiling. So am I.
Nearly four tons of bulk is surprisingly graceful when submerged. Like kids playing in the community pool, Rajan lunges forward into the sea, at times digging his yellowed tusks into the sand. Sending his trunk to the surface, snorkel-like, for a bite of air, he skips across the bottom into deeper water to begin his laps. Moving into deeper water, he will bob happily at the surface, like an apple in a barrel. Other times, he is flurry of energy, paddling massive legs whilst swinging his head from side to side. In the bright sun of an equatorial afternoon, the web-like pattern of the surface reflection against the thick grey wrinkles of Rajan’s skin made the experience seem like a grey-scale aurora borealis.
Looking up at the ivory spears looming above me, I was jerked back to reality at the prospect of being crushed or gored. I feared for my Gates HC-1 housing with wide-angle dome port, knowing it was the only thing between those medicine ball-sized feet and me. One and one-half meter long ivory tusks would make short work of my camera. Rajan was well aware of my presence, sometimes making an aggressive diving lunge towards me. Mostly though, he tolerated my close proximity, even seeming to grin as he splashed and kicked about.
Swimming with a three-and-one-half ton, fully tusked and intact male elephant is both intimidating and surreal. Rajan is a fast swimmer, covering a great deal of ground with his powerful legs. But like a newly trained scuba diver, he leaves behind him a billowing cloud of displaced sand, churning visibility into near white out conditions and playing havoc with o-rings. Dodging elephant turds, which I am happy to say float very well despite being the size of volleyballs, is fine testament to the scuba diver’s rule of looking up before surfacing.
Obviously enjoying weightlessness, Rajan crawls in kneeling position along the sandy bottom, allowing his buoyant bum to elevate his hind legs off the bottom. Rolling slowly from one side to another, Rajan looks like a bloated submarine sitting idle in the water.
The aquatic ballet continues for as much as ninety minutes. Thirst and hunger eventually drive Rajan back to terra firma. Shuffling in an easy gait, he emerges from the seawater to find his favorite scratching tree. After a long, satisfying rub, he lumbers back along a well-trodden path to Barefoot’s reception area. Rajan’s last ritual before returning to the jungle is to drink fresh water from a running hose. He will have nothing to do with a water bowl. And what a three-and-one-half ton pachyderm wants, he gets!
Buy Rajan, the Swimming Elephant DVD for $19.95 plus shipping
Contact
Us
Island Time Scuba, Inc.
972-780-0872
972-780-4709 fax
postmaster@islandtimescuba.com