Part I: Mallika and the Herd

It was a hot and sunny day in May. We were hurrying towards the forest next to ours, as a band of poachers were trying to track us down. Ours was a herd of 13 elephants and I was the youngest with just a few weeks of life behind me.

Grandmother was the Matriarch…the Great Matriarch. She was large and grey and her huge fan-like ears were tattered and crumpled with age. She was wise and fierce and ruled the Herd. My mother Moira was her youngest daughter and I suspect her favorite too. There were many Aunts to look after baby elephants like me and cousins to play with. We always traveled together from one part of the forest to another. My Father and Uncles would join us sometimes at the watering holes or when we were feasting on tufts of juicy grass and crunchy leaves. But they did not travel with us all the time.

We were a happy family and baby elephants like me were loved and well protected. On a usual hot day, we would splash about in the river and roll in the mud to cool ourselves or huddle under a huge, shady tree for a nap.

But that summer's day was different. A monkey told us that some poachers were looking for elephants to shoot. My mother explained that these poachers were hunters with guns who shot elephants for their tusks, which in their language was 'ivory'. I did not understand much as I didn't have any teeth. But my mother and aunts had majestic tusks which gleamed a brilliant white in the moonlight. And that was why they were all so worried.

Grandmother ordered all of us to move towards the National Park near the forest. And so we began our long, arduous journey, walking for miles and miles without a snack or a nap. The sun shone down fiercely and all the puddles and ponds were bone dry. We were all thirsty and tired but we couldn't stop to rest.

Since I was just a few weeks old and the tiniest in the Herd, I couldn't walk as fast as the others and this slowed us down. My mother asked the herd to carry on as she gave me a drink of milk. My Grandmother and Aunts were reluctant to leave, but the safety of the Herd was the prime concern. They promised to wait for us near the River at the edge of the forest. So, after a short break, Mother and I started off again but we had some distance to cover before we could join the herd again.

Suddenly we saw some humans running towards us with something in their hands. I heard shots and my mother cried out in pain. She swayed and fell with a thud. There was blood pouring out from her wounds. I was very scared and was trembling with fright.

"Wake up, Mother," I cried. "What has happened to you?" I squealed.
"Mallika, run. Don't let the poachers get you."
And then she let out a huge sigh and closed her eyes…forever.

Part II: After 11 years

A few days back, a baby elephant was brought to the Elephant Nursery. The older elephants tell me that I was quite like her when I came here, 11 years back.

This new elephant had a lovely rounded face, soft brown eyes and long lashes. She was a sad little elephant with the haunting memory of her mother and her herd all too clear in her mind. She was scared and angry and lonely. She refused to talk to us and hated the people who looked after us. For her all humans were bad and dangerous. But then, a lot of us knew what she was going through because we too had been through the same. It had taken a lot of time for each of us to finally love and cherish this place and the elephants here.

Each of us came in as traumatized little elephants and with time we grew to love this place. Each of us had been lost or orphaned, hurt and scarred. We still think about our Herd, out there in the wilderness. We wonder if they ever remember us and hope that the new babies never meet the fate that we did. And in our hearts we have this one thought, "There is nothing as beautiful as a herd of happy elephants straggling together in mottled green forests."

But don't get me wrong. We're not unhappy in this orphanage. Apart from a few memories, everything else that we have is part of this place: life and love, friends and family, happiness and healing. And we nurture the hope of going back to the wild one day.

I knew that with a lot of love and care and patience the new little elephant would feel the same too.