“Elephants, as majestic symbols of our natural heritage, serve as a powerful lens through which to understand the broader implications of environmental conservation,” says Mathew George Sankaramangalam, one of the founding members of Friends of Elephants (FOE), a Bengaluru-based group that seeks to raise awareness among people about the world’s largest land animal.
The organisation, which turned 10 this year, prides itself on its work introducing urban people to the idea that the health of distant forests directly influences their own well-being. “Who would have thought that the fate of elephants, roaming freely in distant jungles, could be intertwined with the lives of city dwellers in bustling Bengaluru?” says the Bengaluru-based business person.
Friends of Elephants field work. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The beginnings
It began over a casual meeting at Cubbon Park exactly a decade ago. Six people from diverse backgrounds — an elephant researcher, a business person, a veterinarian, a doctor, and two photographers — connected by their love for elephants decided they wanted to do their bit towards elephant conservation. George still recalls the brainstorming that took place during that first meeting. “Different people came with different ideas,” he says. “We didn’t have a complete picture at that point in time.”
Slowly, the idea began to take shape. The team created a logo, opened social media accounts, and began organising open events focused on elephant awareness and conservation. At these events, which were held regularly every month at the Rangoli Metro Art Center at M.G. Road, numerous elephant experts, including scientists, photographers, researchers and officials, would address the public about issues related to conserving these animals whose lives are constantly threatened by human activities.
“We noticed that there was a lot of information and opinions available on elephants, but not all of it was (backed by) knowledge. Information is not the same as knowledge,” says elephant scientist Surendra Varma, another founding member of the group. Varma, who worked at the Indian Institute of Science for several years, has always valued disseminating knowledge to a lay audience, so “we thought we should (use this forum to) introduce people to experts in this field.”
Surendra Varma | Photo Credit: P.S.M
Creating more friends
At first, the platform drew researchers and students, people who knew something about wildlife, elephants or conservation, adds George. Slowly, laypeople with no expert knowledge but eager to learn more also started making their way to these events. “Every 4th Sunday, all of us would religiously assemble in the metro auditorium, and it became a happening place about all things related to elephant conservation,” he says.
According to him, they did not miss a single meeting until COVID-19, when they were forced to shift to an online format, which still continues to this day. “The event was locally sponsored, and many businesses went through a downturn post-COVID. “Our members felt that we should not stretch ourselves too much till we get a good number of sponsors again, so we continued online,” says George. “But we are now in the process of reviving those physical monthly meetings.”
Singer Chitra Iyer, who regularly attended those physical meetings, remembers how these events managed to attract audiences from all walks of life: “There were people who were curious…people who didn’t know what was happening. They would come in and become so engrossed in what was happening that they would start coming regularly,” she says. The location — a public space in the middle of the city that was open to all — also played a role in growing the movement since it drew people casually walking past into the audience, says Iyer, a passionate animal activist and the founder-trustee of Society for Elephant Welfare (SEW). “For me, it was a source of education, not just information. I really enjoyed going to those meetings,” she says.
Sangita Iyer, Canadian Documentary Maker, author and elephant activist addressing the Friends of Elephants meeting. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Diverse views
George recollects a rather eventful talk involving the biologist, journalist, and filmmaker Sangita Iyer, the founder of the Voice for Asian Elephants Society. Unbeknownst to the organising team, the Captive Elephant Owners Association of Kerala learnt that Iyer would be part of this event. “They wanted to counter her,” he says. “During the question-and-answer session, it became a very heated discussion.”
George, who had chaired that meeting, intervened and saved the situation from getting out of hand, thanks to his knowledge of colloquial Malayalam. “We gave an opportunity for everyone to air their views,” he says. “These monthly meetings were not about gaining knowledge; they were also about interacting, understanding each other, and exchanging ideas.”
In addition to hosting talks by experts, the group also conducted fieldwork to raise awareness about captive elephants, organised education programmes for children, encouraged participants to create short films on elephant welfare and facilitated collaboration between diverse stakeholders, including researchers, forest officials, farmers, filmmakers, captive elephant owners, and activists.
By empowering urban dwellers with knowledge and expertise, Friends of Elephants helped create a network of volunteers who could help larger elephant conservation goals, whether it was helping the forest department during an elephant census, looking into the welfare of captive elephants or managing a forest fire. “It helped create a very important wildlife support system,” believes Varma.
Bridging a gap
These meetings have been helpful for another reason. “For me, as an official, connecting with people was important at these events since it helps us bridge the knowledge and perception gap,” says Manoj Kumar, the Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Karnataka, and a regular at these meetings. He says people sitting in Bengaluru often have a skewed understanding of human-elephant conflict and do not understand the on-ground situation.
“They don’t understand the plight of local people or the forest department staff,” he says. For instance, in Coorg, where he once worked, human-elephant conflict often results in serious law and order situations with elephants being electrocuted or shot and forest staff being assaulted because of the immense loss faced by communities cultivating expensive crops there. “Perception-wise, there is a whole lot of difference between what people in the field are really facing and what people sitting in Bengaluru are understanding,” he says. “When we interact with them (Bengalureans) directly, I think this gap can easily be bridged.”
The road ahead
Friends of Elephants is striving to narrow this urban-rural gap, a goal which is extremely important from a policy perspective, says Varma. “Policies for remote areas are created in capital cities,” he says. While people from the forest have a deeper understanding and interest in the issue, they don’t necessarily have the ability to communicate this or understand how political ecology works within a city. “We have reached a stage when this can be done only by people who live in cities,” says Varma, who, therefore, feels that empowering urban people with knowledge is the best way forward. “If we start neglecting the cities, we are going to lose many things…and we cannot afford to lose a blade of grass,” he says.
The organisation plans to continue trying to help elephants and people who live in their proximity, restart their physical meetings, expand into other cities and bring more people into the core group. “Of the original members, we are only left with two founding members,” says George. ‘We want to pass this baton to the next set of people who can work behind the scenes, get this going, and take it to the next level.”
Published - August 12, 2024 09:00 am IST
