IN CONVERSATION
A jumbo passion
MITA KAPUR
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Writer Mark Shand on his obsession with the Asian elephant.
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Love story: Mark Shand with his elephant Tara.
HE saw her leaning nonchalantly against a tree. His mouth went dry, he felt giddy and breathless. Her eyes, gentle dark brown pools of kindness, were fringed by lashes long enough to suggest they were false. She was scrawny, starved. She was a beggar. She chose him.
Love and passion run amuck when Mark Shand talks about Tara, his elephant. He travelled 600 miles across India with her and wrote Travels on my Elephant.
His eyes crinkle with laughter, "Have you ever seen an elephant trying to hide? Tara does that when she sees me, always fearing I'll take her for another long journey. She's a lady of luxury now."
About Tara
His eyes light up when he talks about animals. "When I had just begun my journey, Tara was trundling along a rough path in a zig-zag manner. I kept trying to make her walk straight. She picked up stones from the path and put them on her head. I finally figured out she was telling me that the stones were hurting her, she was simply trying to create her own path."
Mark and the Elephant Family are synonymous. The conservation of the Asian elephant has ruled the last 20 years of his life. Alternative Elephant Polo, in which the use of an ankush on elephants has been eliminated, a 24-hour veterinary mobile service for the elephants and strict rules for sensitive treatment for this regal animal are the results of Mark's tireless efforts, working in sync with Help in Suffering in Jaipur.
"I was brought up in Sussex, spent most of my time in the woods. Obsession with elephants appeared much later, I hadn't even seen one except in the zoo. In 1988, my publishers wanted me to do a book on the jungles in India. While leafing through my grandmother's papers, I came across a photograph of a mahout, wearing high heels being chased by an elephant. I researched on elephants at the British Museum Library. I came across a wonderful picture of a 16th century English traveller in a cavalier hat, a plume and boots on an elephant. I thought, `what a great way to travel'. I found Tara, it was karmic. She taught me all that I know about elephants."
Mark's fascination with animals only fused with his love for travel. "The book that put me in the limelight has all to do with Tara, nothing to do with me. I felt so strongly about her, the words just flowed." Conservation work for the Asian elephant came about when he was Vice-President, Flora and Fauna International. "We don't run a project. We take funds for a project that we feel is doing well and they have to report back to us. Elephants are an apex species. If you save them you save the forests."
Mark asks, "Older people worship elephants but the younger generation want to get rid of the elephants. There are 200 NGOs in Delhi, why isn't anyone looking after those 50-60 elephants living on the Yamuna?"
Even though Kaziranga's shoot-to-kill policy has worked, it still has to deal with its forests being eaten up. The government has to wake up to work on this.
"I've been accused of using celebrity power for the elephant polo in Jaipur, but I'd rather have somebody saying something rather than no one saying anything at all. The Cartier polo event will only spread awareness among people, we aren't against the use of animals in a sport but we are against the misuse of animals in sport. I've seen the elephants have fun playing polo now, they pop the balls and you can make out by their playfulness they're happy. It's exactly what they do in forests, pick up trees, throw them, play, smash, run, much better than slogging up that hill with tourists on their back."
Ideally, elephants shouldn't walk on tar roads, or live in deserts like Rajasthan but they've been used for thousands of years, in wars, ceremonies, pomp and pageantry.
"I agree this is cruelty, but it has to be phased out step by step. No other state has banned the use of the ankush or is providing such medical facilities. We need more elephant sanctuaries here — that would be a plus for Rajasthan as a desert state. We can argue that elephants shouldn't be in Rajasthan at all, but they are here now. So what are we going to do with them? Rather than shout `this shouldn't happen', we have to work with the problem. An elephant rescue centre is on the anvil for Jaipur's old and infirm elephants, to let them live their last years in dignity in a safe place."
"We're fighting 5000 years of tradition plus we had more forests then. People have forgotten elephants are basically wild animals. Poaching for ivory is equally serious. Sri Lanka has only three per cent of its tuskers left. The Portuguese and the British are responsible for wiping out forests for tea and railways. The elephants knew progress was coming, each time a telegraph pole was put up, they pulled it out — a signal of things to come."
Grave conflict
The elephant-human conflict is grave. Thirty elephants were poisoned in Salanpur three years ago. In the last 10 years, 8,000 Asian elephants have been slaughtered. This war will escalate; elephants are now living in small strips of land with not enough food. After all that talk about elephant corridors, where are they? We have to imprison the elephants within these corridors if they are to be saved. Putting up electric fences in India is myopic, though it's working in South Africa. Here, the infrastructure costs can't be met and who will maintain the fences? We are talking about an animal with high intelligence here. It's a battle for space, dignity and life itself."
"I can't see myself in a suit doing business. I want to travel, make films." That's self-evident in his travel books, River Dog: A Journey Down the Brahmaputra, Queen of Elephants, and Skulduggery. Finer taste for art deco jewellery, a yen for collecting objects, is just a part of Mark.
"On the go" is an apt way to label him. He's been travelling since he was 16, the wander lust is a "genetic thing". He went to Australia, worked in opal mines. On his way back, he stopped in India, the moment he stepped off the plane, his "soul was here".
A man with a sense of the absurd is a familiar label for him.
With his quirky humour, he explains, "if you're going to write, make films, poke fun, you've got be ready to take it as well. The absurd is big in India, Indians take it in their stride. And, like me, they find it funny. The sense of the absurd and laughter breaks down barriers. That's why I'm comfortable in India, people are warm, funny and friendly here."
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