A Day with a Woman Mahout and Her Pets

After crossing a small tributary of the Kaveri at Dubare it took over half an hour walk through the forest trails to reach the ‘mane’ (house) of ‘Ranima’ as Prajna Chowta was fondly called by locals and other mahouts of the Karnataka Forest Department. Kala, the tribesman, who led us through the jungle trails, was frequently checking the heat of elephant dung by placing his foot on it as we were slightly apprehensive about the sudden appearance of a tusker. At the end of the anxious walk which seemingly crossed the distance told by Kala, it was refreshing to see Prajna passionately engaged in nursing two female elephants with the warmth of caressing human babies. 

“They are very sensible and intelligent animals. Often I have a feeling that elephants share many human instincts. They return the love we give and on occasions the animal may turn envious too. When a baby girl was born to me, Kalpana, my dearest elephant became a little jealous and that continued till she got a calf. These are personal observations and I don’t claim any scientific certainty” the woman mahout donned in trousers and shirts said while leading the elephants back to forest by noon after the routine care at Aana Mane. Quite surprisingly, each of the four elephants, mothers and calves, came in a line and kissed Philippe with their trunk and with his gentle pat and nod only they moved along with Prajna.

In conversation with Prajna Chowta and Philip Gautier at Dubare,Coorg

She opted Anthropology and Art History for her higher learning at the University of London but dramatically turned out to be a unique woman mahout dedicated to the rearing and research on wild Asian elephants. Leading a transnational life split between India and France, Prajna Chowta and her husband Philippe Gautier, a French film maker, spend several months every year with their pet elephants at the Aana Mane base camp at Dubare in Kodagu forest, the main elephant corridor of South India. 

Two decades have passed since Prajna heard the call of the wild and when she set up the Aana Mane Foundation in 2002 she had a clear vision that her vocation would be the management of semi-captive elephants in their natural habitat. Living in forest in a makeshift wooden shelter with bare minimum amenities she could make a strong bond of love and understanding with the biggest mammals on land. It was quite exhilarating to watch the wild pachyderms turned meek playful creatures with her most affectionate rearing. In an open patch of land amidst forest Prajna and tribal assistants were engaged in nursing elephants with a pink-colour liquid. In a jovial mood, the young calves were running around their mothers as they were being cleaned. “Its potassium permanganate used to weed away worms. No use, the animals will get mixed in mud and filth in the forest,” Prajna, who penned ‘Elephant Code Book’, a handy reference tool for elephant keepers, said.

“Elephants are in ideal situations of captivity here. We let them go forest with relaxed chains and they would come back after grazing and mating. If they do not return for many days we send mahouts to get them back,” said Philippe who filmed these animals for a three-part documentary ‘Elephas Maximus’, in which Prajna is the protagonist. Prajna and Philippe had also directed a full-length feature film ‘Hathi’ in 1997.

Returning to Aana Mane after sending elephants back to forest Prajna became quite eloquent on her passion to these wild animals. How Prajna, daughter of Darbe Krishnananda Chowta, Tulu writer, business man and artist, and sister of renowned music director Sandeep Chowta, turned to this vocation?

“I was an anthropology student. As part of studies I had travelled extensively through tribal colonies across the country. Somehow the passion towards studies on ethnic people shifted to elephants,” she said.

After her mahout training at Muthanga wild life sanctuary in Wayanad, Kerala, she spent weeks and months in many elephant camps across India. In Arunachal Pradesh she along with a group had gone on an elephant safari of 350 km with four elephants. “Days and nights I spent in forests, some days with my young daughter too. There was never a question of regret. Once I have an urge I will stick on to it. Everyone asks me why should I go to darkness. But for me forest is the temple and elephant it’s deity. Only through darkness, one can reach the realm of light,” she added a tinge of philosophy to her strange vocation.

Now, Aane Mane is engaged in a mission of testing the first prototypes of elephant tracking collars designed in India. GPS collars are fitted on two tamed elephants Kalpana and Kunti and scientists at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, are studying their movements in forest. The system transmits every two hours an accurate position of the elephants in the forest. “GPS collars are essential in the management of captive elephants in their natural habitat. In the future, some of the 3,500 captive elephants in India may be released in the forest and monitored round the clock. It may prove useful in the mitigation of human-elephant conflict in areas where the elephant habitat is fragmented and occupied by human settlements,” Philippe said as he stepped on a four-wheel-gear jeep through the curvy tracks of the forest.

I met Prajna Chowta in November 2013 at Aana Mane in Kodagu. The enduring moments of that visit are still vivid in memories. As I remain mostly indoors owing to Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, I could find a new aesthetic spirit and delight in recollecting that unique experience in life.