Tourist Boats chasing a Tusker - Bandipur/Nagarahole

[Tiger Ramesh]

This is very disturbing.

On 31st December 2009, around 5.30 PM, I was sitting in a jeep near sun set point in Kabini enjoying the last sunset of the year.

What i saw next was really crazy. One big Tusker came trumpeting from the Bandipur side and wanted to swim across the Kabini river towards Nagarahole. But there was a tourist boat in that area. The elephant trumpetted because it saw the boat. But still got into the water and started to swim. The guests and the boatman got excited and they started following the elephant. Soon many more boats joined the chase.

Finally when the elephant finished swimming (roughly 200 meters), it had 5 boats in a single file right behind its back. The tusket got out, trumpted and ran behind the bamboo.

I have attached the final shot. I have about 20 pictures of the whole sequence.

When will we learn to give "space" and respect wildlife??