INDIAN ELEPHANT.

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Formerly, it was the practice to starve these captured Elephants into submission; now, however, by means of two tame ones, trained for the purpose, they can be captured without injury, one by one, and afterwards bound to a tree. To accomplish this the trained animals are sent into the enclosure, and on a wild Elephant being singled out, the two trained ones place themselves one on each side, and attract its attention while the attendants are occupied in binding its legs, which having been satisfactorily accomplished, the captive is dragged to a tree and fastened firmly, where it remains until reduced to submission and obedience by kindness and good feeding.

“The vast jungles in the south-eastern portion of the Mysore territory are infested with herds of wild Elephants, whose depredations on the adjacent lands have retarded agriculture to a serious extent. A project was set on foot by Mr. G. P. Sanderson, a young and energetic officer in the service of the Mysore Government, to convert these Elephants to some use by capturing and taming them. Mr. Sanderson’s design was to drive a herd into a strongly embanked channel leading out of the Houhole river, escape being cut off at one end by it deep ditch, and the other opening on the river, guarded by Elephant chains supported by strong posts. On the 9th June, 1874, the Elephants being reported in the neighbourhood, a large party of natives, led by Mr. Sanderson and two other ardent sportsmen, hurried to the spot, and quietly drove the animals towards the channel. The leading Elephant being pushed from behind by his companions, tumbled over the bank, and the latter soon followed. This having been effected, the embankment was quickly strengthened, large fires lighted at intervals along it, and watchers placed for the night. The next point was to move the Elephants into a still smaller enclosure, which was prepared close by. It was funnel-shaped at the mouth, and formed of trunks of trees, firmly fixed in the ground, the snare being disguised by branches and brushwood. Over the neck of the funnel, so to speak, a drop formed of two large cocoa-nut trees lashed together was suspended by a rope, to be severed at a stroke when the Elephants were all in. The herd, terrified by firebrands, rockets, and guns, were driven towards the keddah, and led by a troublesome tusker, who had long kept the others at bay, marched majestically one by one through the gate. After a short pause, owing to a stand being made by a few of the most refractory, the last of the herd went in with a rush, closely followed by a frantic native waving a firebrand. An officer sitting ready on a branch of a tree now cut the rope, and the drop fell amid loud cheers, thus capturing the rich prize of fifty-three Elephants, which were brought out one by one with the assistance of tame Elephants. The latter advance in a body and gradually cut one off from the herd. While amusing it, and distracting its attention, its legs are warily tied by trained men. After this no difficulty is encountered. The capture described included twelve valuable tuskers, and its value was estimated at over £4,000.”[258]

Indian Elephants are also sometimes captured by means of pitfalls formed in a similar manner to those used in Africa. There is, however, one great objection to this mode of capture, which is, that the animal is rendered very liable, from the heavy fall it sustains, of being seriously hurt, and indeed injuries thus received have often proved fatal.

Another way of catching these animals in some districts of India is by means of the lasso. Two trained females are procured for the purpose; these are provided with a long rope which is fastened to their girdle, and then coiled on their backs. Its end forms a noose, which a man, who sits on the back of the trained female, throws round the neck of the wild Elephant; the tame one then walks away until the captured one is almost strangled. In the meantime, the people, assisted by another tame female, endeavour to fasten ropes to his legs, and he is dragged to a place where there are trees, to which he is fastened until he becomes tame. The Elephants caught in this manner are usually small, and the majority, for some reason or other, die, probably from the rough usage they have undergone.

Elephant shooting, especially in Ceylon, was considered to be the acme of sport; but from the number that were wantonly destroyed, an order was issued by the Governor prohibiting their destruction. The Elephant is invaluable as a labourer; its assistance in road-making, bridge-building, ploughing, piling logs, lifting weights, and other similar operations, is of the utmost service. Even as a nurse for young children, its services, we are told, are sometimes required. An Indian officer relates that he has seen the wife of a mahout (for the followers often take their families with them to camp), give a baby in charge of an Elephant, while she went on some business, and has been highly amused in observing the sagacity and care of the unwieldy nurse. The child, which, like most children, did not like to be at rest in one position, would, as soon as left to itself, begin crawling about, in which exercise it would probably get among the legs of the animal, or entangled in the branches of the trees on which he was feeding, when the Elephant would in the most tender manner disengage his charge, either by lifting it out of the way with his trunk, or by removing the impediments to its free progress. If the child had crawled to such a distance as to verge upon the limits of his range (for the animal was chained by the leg to a peg driven in the ground), he would stretch out his trunk and lift it back as gently as possible to the spot whence it had started.

ELEPHANT IN THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, LONDON.
(From a Photograph by Symmons and Co., Chancery Lane, expressly taken for this work.)

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