Audrey's Adventure in India: This is the Last Song....Incredib!e India I will Never Forget You!

Well we are finally back to civilization after an 8 day adventure into the best hidden treasure of India, Mudumalai Tiger Sanctuary! It has been an amazing experience, and one that I certainly will never forget! I learned many things about elephant health, including common diseases they are vaccinated against, hoof and tusk maintenance, dental care, and how to age/sex an Asian elephant. However, before we began our great safari adventure, we started our trip in a town called Mysore.

Mysore is considered a palace town full of beautiful places to tour, exquisite views, and bothersome people trying to sell you things. We began at a palace that was built for the king by his mother after his father, the previous king had passed away. As we were walking through, I was mesmerized. Places of such beauty had only existed in movies until now, I thought. Every wall was painted with scenery from majestic times, there were beautiful stained glass ceilings in an oversized ballroom that was gold plated, and even the doors were gorgeous stained tikh wood with beautiful carvings on them. In fact, each door in the palace is worth around $500,000!

After leaving there we decided to travel up 3,000 feet into the mountains to visit a temple. As the car took us higher into the mountains we began to see very pretty views, and the view of the Western Ghats mountains was amazing.

We then decided that it would be appropriate to visit another palace, which contained a bar, (which is very scandalous in India) to have a drink. It was quite refreshing and as we made our way out of the palace we were stopped by a magician wanting to show us his tricks. I can honestly say that they were the best magic tricks I have ever seen, and he was really funny too. From there we headed to the hotel and went to bed.

The next morning we headed to a place that is known for Jain pilgrimage. Jainism is a religion that is close to Hinduism, and at the temple we went to, a Jain saint is depicted in the largest monolithic (one stone) statue in the world. In order to get to see the statue, a person has to walk up 652 steps, and it is crazy how tired you get walking up the steps. It was cool to see, and after that we went to 2 soap stone temples. The temples have a carving on every single exposed piece. The carvings are so intricate and beautiful it amazes me how they did it so long ago. It is also sad to look at the temples because the British and Muslims have raided the temples and knocked off the heads, arms, and legs of a lot of the carvings. After that we headed back to the hotel, had dinner, and went to sleep.

The next morning we packed everything up and headed to Mudumalai! Once we reached Mudumalai we had a really good lunch made by THE man at Mudumalai, Eta (meaning brother). After that we traveled to the elephant camp, where they keep all of the working elephants. While there we learned how to sex Asian elephants. Interestingly, Asian elephants do not all have tusks, unlike African elephants. Female Asian elephants do not have tusks, however they may have some that are about 4 inches long. Male elephants typically have long thick tusks depending on their age, however there are some tusk-less Asian male elephants, called Muknas. To sex an Asian elephant, one must look at the tail head (Bulbo spongiosus muscle) and decide if it is concave or convex shaped. If it is convex, the elephant is male, and likewise if it is concave, the animal is female. We also learned how to age Asian elephants. In order to age the elephants, one must look at several factors. Things such as de-pigmentation of the face and trunk, a fold in the top of the ear, the length and girth of tusks, dental age, and buccal depression (cheek depression) can give you a fairly accurate age. Elephants begin to develop a fold in the top of their ear by the age of 10 years old and by age 30, the fold is 1 inch wide. Then, for every 20 years, the fold gains another inch. Looking at the ear, one can also judge age by the amount of tears in the ears. Elephants generally live to be around 80-85 in captivity and 60-65 in the wild. We also learned about elephants teeth. Elephants have no teeth on the top part of their jaw, and just 2 very large, jaw-length molars on their bottom jaw. They have 6 sets of molars in their lifetime with the first erupting around 4 months of age, the second around 8 months of age, and so on. The sixth molar will have 12 ridges in the tooth, and it will eventually wear out, push out of the jaw, and will leave the elephant toothless, and render it to die by starvation if it is in the wild. In captivity however, they are fed very soft food to avoid dental problems. Leading into that, the food that they are fed comes in 6 inch by 6 inch blocks and is composed of blocks of rice, ragi, and horse gram. They also get salt, jaggery, sugar cane, and random fruits that are provided by visitors to the sanctuary. Once the blocks have been prepared and cooked, the Mahouts (elephant keepers) crush the blocks, mash the blocks together into a basketball size bolus, and then feed it to the elephant. We got to participate in the feeding, and fed them some sugar cane. After that, we got to go visit with a 1 year old elephant named Sammorrhyan. He hugged me with his trunk, and it was very cute! After that, I met my best friend in elephant shaped, a 5 year old girl named Massini. She could not get enough of me, and kept sucking on my neck with her trunk, which is apparently a term of endearment. Every time I would clap my hands together, she would lift her trunk and “kiss” me on the cheek. I loved her!!! After about an hour of playing around we headed back to Peacock Dormitory to have dinner and retire for the night. On our ride back to the dorm we spotted a panther, which is a RARE occurrence! I didn’t know that panthers and leopards are the same cat, so to see a spotted “panther” was a shock to me.

The next morning we woke up bright and early and went to watch elephants being washed by their Mahouts in the river. Each elephant has a specific Mahout that is assigned to them, and they really form a bond with them. The elephant training is done completely by one Mahout, and it is really amazing how well they listen to their trainer! It is incredible that an animal of such size listens like a puppy when given a command by their Mahout. Every morning the females, Muknas, and big Tuskers (male elephants with large tusks) that are either used for work or rides get bathed in the river. The Mahout will tell the animal to lie down in the river, the elephant will oblige, and then the Mahout will climb all over the animal scrubbing it with a brush and stone. This is the elephant’s reward for a job well done everyday, and the elephants absolutely love it. After watching that for a while we returned to the camp to play with the babies. We then went on a ride around looking at everything trying to spot a tiger. We saw many wild elephants, a giant squirrel (endangered), bison, spotted deer, and Sambar deer. Then, we went on a bus Safari for a half hour where we spotted a sloth bear and all of the animals mentioned above. After that, we had dinner, and went on another night ride, but didn’t see anything new.

On Saturday morning we had a date with the forest ranger at his home. He explained to us the importance of keeping the world’s forest intact in order to keep life as we know it. He had a very important message and I totally agree that forests need to remain intact. He also had a lovely wife who treated us to breakfast and tea. From there, we went to the camp and distributed the shoes that we brought with us from the U.S. to the nearly 50 Mahouts there. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life to see one kid who was probably 13 find a pair of shoes that he loved, put them on, and wear them around like he just won a million dollars. I taught him how to tie the shoes because he had never had tennis shoes before. It is amazing the things that we take for granted, like knowing how to tie shoes. From there we went on two 3 hour safaris, which were beautiful. We also got charged by a wild elephant, but he wasn’t too serious about actually chasing us, thank God. After that, we had dinner and went to bed.

On Sunday we got up early and went on some more safaris. We also climbed up into 3 watch towers as well as a small mountain in order to take some pictures of the breathtaking views. The views of the Western Ghats were spectacular, the pictures absolutely do not do it justice, and they certainly will not be forgotten. After that we spent our last night at Mudumalai eating Jackfruit with honey.

On Monday morning we got up and went to take an elephant ride! It was amazing, and I really enjoyed it. It feels absolutely surreal being up so high on such a bumpy ride! It was a great way to end our trip to Mudumalai for sure! After that we made the 3 hour trek back to Mysore to board the train back to Chennai. It was a long 7 hours, but now that we’re back, I am more than excited to be heading back to America tomorrow!!!! I absolutely can’t wait!

I thoroughly have enjoyed my stay in India, and have learned so much about India itself, animals, veterinary medicine, and about myself in general. I have enjoyed many once in a lifetime experiences that will not ever be forgotten, made life long friends, met many incredible people, and have learned to deal with anything that comes my way absolutely solo. This trip has also taught me a lot about life in general. I have learned to not stress the little things, to take advantage of every learning opportunity available, and to realize that in the end everything works out the way it was meant to be. I absolutely do not regret for one second coming on this trip, and I believe I will be a better veterinarian because of it. I would like to extend a HUGE thank you to Dr. MohanKumar, Dr. Grooms, Dr. Gunaseelan, Dr. BhanuRekha, Dr. Giri, Dr. Pawar, Rajendran, Muthu, Vinayagam, Monikum, Dr. Kannan, and to the USDA for funding this grant. It really has been the experience of a lifetime!