Swimming With The Elephants (15/268)

Swimming With The Elephants (15/268)

Elephants are just like us: They're usually thinking about food, sweets and a nice cool bath. They have to go to school a long time, and retire when they're 60!" This quote from an Indian elephant handler could hardly be more apt. These animal "tractors" have been working the woods of India for centuries, just as on India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands. As legend has it, on these islands the gentle gray giants are used not only for pulling and plowing, but also as water taxis, swimming from island to island. The elephant's symbiotic relationship with man was impressively illustrated during the disastrous tsunami of Christmas 2004. When the huge wave drowned the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, it was not clear for days whether anyone had survived on the exposed isles at all. But it seems the elephants sensed the impending disaster, and stampeded screaming and honking for the higher reaches of the islands, thereby warning the humans as well, who followed them and survived. Today, however, the pachyderms' job is done. The forests that are left are protected. So what do you do with out-of-work work elephants?

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