kudos Karnataka !

[Bhargava Srivari]

We had started from JLR-bandipur and were heading towards kabini when at 11:40am precisely, we were blocked from proceeding further by a jeep belonging to Project Tiger, bandipur!
On enquiring with the forest personnel, we got to know that a herd of elephants were migrating from Satyamangalam to kabini/bandipur and the pachyderms would cross the road anytime.
I quickly grabbed my camera and set it up ready to shoot...we were hearing a lot of crackers being burnt and gunshots were fired into the air!
In what the estimated 5 minutes became a long 25min, the elephants finally crossed the road and entered the man-made forest on the other side
During the short conversation I had had with the range officer, I realised that elephants used to cause quite some damage to the crops in the area
until a couple of years ago, when the forest dept. of Karnataka created patches of man-made forests, and fenced the other parts of the route through the villages.
So, the elephants didn't really have a choice but to enter the urban/human-created forest and proceed towards their destination
Incidentally, it was the first time I had seen a herd of 11 elephants in which all were tuskers!
Seven elephants can be seen in the frame..too bad though that the tusker on the far left isn't bright enoguh

Canon 60D
sigma 150-500mm
handheld, on foot

f/7
EV 0
1/320sec
ISO 400
focal length 250mm
FULL FRAME