“Rain rain, go away,
Come again, another day,
Little [tusker] wants to play!”

The river Kabini is ‘blushing’ with enough rainfall and the dam is full! The river bank that once provided a ‘lounge’ of green grass for Elephants to leisurely graze on, Gaur for browsing and Chital to congregate, is now non-existent with the river flooding and reaching the bamboo thickets!

I was with a team of Jain Jagruthi members who were hoping against hope to be able to sight the Tiger! They were not pleased with the Crocs, the Hornbills or the Sambar, despite its fascinating ‘sore spot’. After sipping on our delectable Sidapur coffee, I felt a bit relieved despite not being able to fulfill their expectations! I was seriously wondering what to offer them next if I received another request for a Tiger sighting. The coffee was now over and we had another hour to go! I began narrating stories that we learned about Kabini during the summer about elephants swimming between Bandipur and Nagarhole.

I merely had stories to tell and a few breeding Cormorants to show the guests. I felt this would definitely not satisfy them as they paid no heed to them. I was silent for a minute as I wanted to observe if anything was happening in the jungle. Abruptly, I spotted an elephant in the water!

A Magnificent Tusker Sighted in the River

Surprised and thoroughly fascinated, we watched an elephant swim for over a kilometer from Bandipur to Nagarhole! Our team was at the right place at the right time as other resort boats had ‘fled’ because they made nil sightings.

A Tusker Using His Trunk to Navigate

I was congratulated with a pat on my back by all present on the boat as we made the most unexpected sighting of the mighty tusker who swam over 80 feet above the river bed! We were full of admiration for this creature’s buoyancy, ‘dog-style’ swimming and the dexterous manner in which he used his trunk to navigate as well as breathe!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Herbivores, Mammals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.