Elephant Whisperers: Wayanad Survivors Recount How Tusker Shielded Them During Disaster

Wayanad residents Sujatha Aninanchira and her family made a daring escape during the Chooralmala landslide.

In the early hours of Tuesday, their home was flattened by the landslide, trapping them under the rubble.

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Miraculously, they managed to extricate themselves and climb to a nearby hillock, only to find themselves face-to-face with a tusker and two female elephants.

Recounting her experience from a relief camp at Meppadi GHSS, Sujatha described how the tusker seemed to recognise their plight.

"It was pitch dark and just half a meter away from us was a wild tusker. It too seemed terrified. I mumbled a request to the elephant, saying I had just survived a disaster and asked it to spare us to allow us to lie down for the night and let someone rescue us," Sujatha said.

Remarkably, the tusker stood still, mere inches away, without harming them. Sujatha and her granddaughter clung to an areca nut tree, spending the night in terror.

"We were very close to the tusker's legs, but it seemed to understand our predicament. We stayed there till 6 a.m., and the elephants also stood there till we were rescued by some people in the morning. I could see its eyes welling up as the dawn broke."

Sujatha has been a tea picker at the Harrisons Malayalam Tea Estate in Mundakkai for 18 years.

On the night of the disaster, she woke up at 1:15 a.m. as heavy rain continued from the previous evening. Suddenly, a loud sound followed by gushing water filled their house.

"All of us sat on the bed, and soon huge wood logs came banging on the house, along with debris from our neighbors' houses, which had all been flattened. The roof of our house collapsed on us, leaving my daughter seriously injured," Sujatha recounted.

Despite the chaos, she managed to pull her granddaughter from the rubble. The rest of the family also escaped, wading through the water and crawling up the hillock, where they encountered the elephants.