Ellies @ Nxb

We have elephants crossing our estate through the year. They are often driven by Forest Department officials with bombs and rockets and a crowd of screaming villagers through our estate to our eastern border where there is a small forest.
This year, as part of our Hathi Sathi program we are training our chowkidars in crowd control.
Young boys see this as a mark of valour to chase and tease the elephants. For the most part the elephants don't react. But if they are with their young or stressed they will and that leads to Elephant-Human Conflict.
We believe driving elephants with bombs, chasing and teasing them leads to great stress in the animals. They are more likely to charge their oppressors than if they are relaxed.
This week was the first instance where we managed to control the crowds and it was a day of great joy as the elephants passed more or less in a relaxed manner.