Face to Face with an Elephant

Hello, everyone! Here's a story for the season. Thanks to Vineet Rajvanshi for sharing his latest with all of us! - Gowri

Winter is a very happy and relaxing time in the tea gardens in Assam. The weather remains pleasant. There is plenty of sunshine, working hours get slashed, and pruning remains the main operation in the field. It normally finishes early in the day. 

Breakfast table, as a rule, is laid under the garden umbrella on the bungalow lawn, with lots of juicy local oranges. The garden Head clerk, Roy Babu used to visit Nowgong almost every week. Among other things he used to buy oranges for me, 25-30 local oranges used to cost Rs.5/- only.

I joined Tea during 1976, fresh from college, and my first garden was Gopal Krishna Tea Estate, P. O. Killing Valley, District Nowgong (now Morigaon), Assam. The garden was very close to the Karbi Hills district. The name Killing Valley was attributed to large scale hunting of wild animals during British rule. Similarly, the name of the river flowing through the garden was Killing River. The post office used to be run from a small room near the main office. An office clerk of the garden, Kali Babu, was part time postmaster and the office used to remain open for 1-2 hours.

Gopal Krishna had three divisions - the main division, Nellie Division and Auguri Division. Auguri was under Mikir Hills district (now Karbi Anglong).

 The main division was split into three. On the East Bank of Killing River was Bargaon division, where the Factory, Main Office, Bungalows, Hospital, Staff and Labour  quarters were situated. On the west bank was Killing division, and further, across a bheel named Gova, was the Gova division.

 There was a hanging cable bridge over the river Killing which was the only bridge across. It had a span of 170 ft and was approximately four ft wide with wooden planks. Even the villagers who wanted to go across the river used that bridge. The pluckers engaged in plucking on the other side of the river had to bring green leaf over the bridge,and  sometimes 20-30 pluckers with green leaf used to cross the bridge at a time. The Gova bheel , which was about 20-25 wide, had a bamboo bridge. The Bamboo bridge had wooden posts made from straight tree trunks cut from the jungle, pointed at one end and inserted deep enough into the bed of the bheel to remain stable.

  To enjoy the lovely winter of 1979-80, my colleagues decided to organise a picnic at the Salbari located in Gova division.That season the Pakistani Cricket Team was visiting India, and since I had a portable Phillips Transistor, I was requested to carry along the same.

 I took my Yezdi motorcycle with Bhanu Chakraborty riding pillion, the transistor hanging from Motorcycle handle and broadcasting the running commentary of the match, to reach the picnic spot . On the way we passed by a beautiful mustard field bordering the tea section no. 'Old Killing'. It was a picture postcard scene.  On the river bank there was the vast expanse of mustard fields up to the bottom of the blue hills. The yellow carpet of mustard flowers and the background of blue mountains was marvellous. After crossing this mustard field we arrived at Gova bheel, which we crossed, and finally reached the picnic spot, the Salbari. The Salbari was a mini forest which was self grown and comprised of hundreds of Sal trees.

We were served with hot tea and pakoras on arrival . The boys had a make shift chulha for cooking. We sat around the chulha in a circle, with most of the boys sitting on wooden logs. My transistor also got a seat on such a log.

After we finished our lunch, I thanked Bhanu Chakraborty, the chief organiser of the picnic, for the lovely arrangements and food, and left the place on my motorcycle.

Pix from the internet - just for fun! - Ed.

When I approached the Bamboo bridge at Gova bheel , which was just four feet wide, I suddenly noticed that an elephant was rushing towards the bridge from the other side. It was not  full grown but quite big. There was a steel chain dangling from one front leg, which implied that it was a domesticated elephant. I was about to cross the bamboo bridge but seeing the elephant rushing towards the bridge, I stopped and contemplated my next move.

The elephant slowed down on reaching the bamboo bridge and slowly put its leg over it, which it removed immediately as the bamboo matting made a cracking sound. Realising that the bridge was weak , the elephant immediately retreated and took a right turn and started descending into the bheel to cross. That was the right opportunity for me - which I took, and drove over the bamboo bridge full throttle.

On my way to the bungalow, I saw two men running towards the bheel.  They were the mahouts of that elephant. In fact the elephant belonged to a forest contractor named Chandan Dey based in Nellie Village. Later that day, the elephant was caught and brought back to its owner.

- Vineet Rajvanshi

Vineet

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My name is Gowri Mohanakrishnan and I'm a tea planter's wife. I started this blog because one of the things that I wouldn't want us to lose in a fast changing world is the tea story - a story always told with great seriousness, no matter how funny - always true (always) - maybe a tall tale, maybe long, short, impossible, scary, funny or exciting but never dull. You will find yourself transported to another world! 

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