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A Non-Fictional Tale

“WHEN ELEPHANTS THRIVED CHINCHOLI FORESTS” “TRADITION OF ELEPHANT CAPTURE OF NIZAM OF HYDERABAD”

WHEN LONG TERM “KHEDA OPERATIONS” OF “ELEPHANT CAPTURE” FOR USE IN BATTLE, WAR AND GAMES DIMINISHED THE POPULATIONS OF ELEPHANTS IN CHINCHOLI FORESTS IN GULBARGA

A Story of “Khedda Operations” (Elephant Capture) in the times of “Nizam of Hyderabad” at Chincholi in Gulbarga in

Karnataka, Kheddas were not only the practice of weaning away the wild elephants from their “aboriginal inhabitant

populations” but also it was an exciting genre of fun, amusement and entertainment. Nizam Ul Mulk the Viceroy of

Deccan Asif Jah used to give invitation to Prince of Wales, Edward III of England 1867 and the last Czar Nicholas of

Russia, Arc Duke of Austria the Franz Ferdinand 1893 the Duke of Connaught, Viceroy Lord Curzon 1905 for throwing

grand dinner party, offering majestic banquets and organizing royal hunting of wild animals like Cheetah, Tigers and

Elephants etc in his princely state of Hyderabad and Berar. Nizam’s Army famous as “Hyderabad Contingent” also

called as “Russel’s Brigade” always maintained 400 elephants from 1794 to 1922 which mandated such elephant capture

operations during the last couple of centuries, indispensable...A K Singh

Maha Laqa Bai Chanda, Hyderabad’s most celebrated courtesan 1786, a famous dancer, a woman poet in Urdu, guardian of Daccani art and culture of Quli Qutub Shahi of Golconda, asked Captain John Malcom the assistant of James Achillies Kirckpatrick, to organize an elephant hunts at the outskirts of Hyderabad on the insistence of her cousin Khair ul Nissa. Kirckpatrick a British resident of Nizam 1798 quite often used to go for hunting the black buck with his tame cheetahs in the vicinity of Hyderabad. Elephants hunt used to be performed by the forced labour of the native lambanis & tribals, as part of the feudal service which under the name of “raja-karma” was extorted from them. This system, writes J Emerson Tennent, in his book The Wild Elephant And The Method of Capturing

And Taming It In India & Ceylon, “was continued by the Portuguese and Dutch, and

prevailed under the British Government till its abolition by the Earl of Ripon in 1832”. Two thousands of men were ordered by John Malcom through their village headmen for constructing corral, pushing the elephants towards cordon. Catchers in bulk always gathered with their wilful assistance on such thrilling moments. Government meets the expanses for skilled labour, preparations of corals, provision of spears, ropes, arms, drums, flutes, gun powder required for the event. Most of the time lean seasons were chosen which don’t disturb the people besides their voluntary involvement in one of the unusual enjoyment of the sport. Colossal rate of peasantry of their free own free

will occupied for weeks together in installing stockades,

Remains of Ane Pakadi the Elephant Capture Site or Kheda in Dharamsagar Forest in Chincholi Range in Gulabarga Distt.

Square shape Kheda Site visible from the the sky surrounded by Trees and trench flanked by two vellyes in Dharamsagara

Forests Chincholi Gulbrbaga

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paving the ways through jungles. Wild animals beaten trek used to be mostly selected as common migrating routes for elephants which they use routinely for search of forage, water and shelter. British residency at Hyderabad ( now a women’s college) was busy with card playing and gambling and deorhi of Tajalli Ali Shah studded with music of mehfils and mushairas which Mir Ali just attended was joined by Maha Laqa who was coming from Arstu Jah’s mansion where playing chess, flying pigeons just finished. Khair was informed by Rakeem Khan the cook of residency about the preparation of Elephant Pakadi being organized at

the behest of Nizam’s Govt under the supervision of Capt John Malcom for capture of not less than forty young elephants required for the Nizam’s army and a couple of them for Bakshi Begaum. By 1798 Michael Joachim Marie Raymond ( Musa Ram ) the army commander of Nizam’s estates were widened. He possessed most of the luxuries and taste of his times and became one of the most powerful and influential French Army Commander and persuaded the Nizam 1798 again to increase the size of the his force, this time to over

fourteen thousand men, with complete train of canons, gun

foundry, five thousand bullocks and few elephants. Preparations for Elephant Catch were on. Sufficient force of locals, tribes, lambanis, and decoy Kumki elephants were made ready and deployed to build a design of corral, as shown in the figures here, in Chincholi at Kunchavaram in Dharmasagara forests before the envoy of royal battery reaches the location of Khedda. Nizam Ali Khan, Mir Alam, Bakshi Begum, Maha Laqa on the insistence of Tenut un Nissa agreed to witness the scene of Kheda along with Kirckpatrick where Khair ul Nissa was the last person to agree at the long last after a series of persuasion by Maha Laqa and Durdana Begum. The showbiz was going to be not only the theatre of fun and amusement but an exercise of plenty of pleasure, enjoyment and entertainment. The event did not only had a flavour of wild life hunting but also a Brit’s passion for venturing into the dark and deep jungles of India seeing the huge wild beasts in the wild which otherwise was not possible in England. Two months were spent in the preliminaries for making an arrangements. If we see the place now in 2013 there is a square shape plot of one hectare at global position coordinates of N 17 30 4.8 E 77 30 56.7 in Dharmasagara Forests of Chincholi Range in Gulbarga district of Karnataka on the borders of Andhra Pradesh which can easily be discerned in google map shown above. This was a rendezvous for “Khedda operations of elephant capture” for Nizam’s army for almost a century and half where dozens of elephants used to be captured, injured, traumatized, lacerated and killed intermittently entertaining their political bosses and amusing the galaxy of foreign diplomats to the royal gratification of Nizam. The site of Chincholi Kheda is 4 Km from Kunchavaram lambani village which is 110 Km from Chincholi town towards north east on Andhra Pradesh

Few hundreds to thousand people used to encircle to make oval peripheral formation called Elephant Corral for capturing wild elephants

Sektch of Ane Pakadi or Elephant Kheda of Chincholi surrounded by 10 feet deep trench & Gate

made of Stone Masonary with three staircases.

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border in line with Tandur from Hyderabad. The cavalcade was as oriental as the scenery through which it moved, the British resident and the officers of his staff, household formed a long cortege, escorted by the native attendants, horse keepers, foot runners. The ladies were borne in palankins and the younger individuals of the party carried in chairs raised on poles and covered with cool green awnings made of fresh leaves of palms writes

J Tennent. Gathering of royals were seated on the pillars of the gates both the sides. On one pillar was seated Kirkpatrick with Khair flanked by two guards and on another pillar rest of them. The signal was made, and the stillness of the forest was broken by the shouts of the guards, the rolling of the drums and tom toms and the discharge of the muskets and the elephants were hurried forward at the rapid pace towards the entrance into the corral. A herd of wild elephants came trampling down the brushwood and crushing, the leader emerged in front of the corral, paused for an instant

stared wildly round and then rushed madly through the open gate, followed by the rest of the herd.

Instantly, as if by magic, the entire circuit of the corral, which upto this moment had been kept in profound darkness, blazed with thousands of lights, every hunter, in an instant that the elephants entered, rushing forward to the stockade with a torch kindled at the nearest watch fire. The elephants dashed to the very extremity of the enclosure into all the side trenches and being brought up by the fence, retreated to regain the gate, but found it closed. The wild elephant’s fear was sublime, they hurried round the corral at a rapid pace, but saw it not lit by fire on every side. Wild elephants attempted to force the stockade, but were driven back by the guards with spears and flambeaux, on whichever side they approached they were repulsed with shouts and volleys of musketry. Collecting into one group, they would pause for a moment in apparent bewilderment, then burst off in another direction. It became dark with the descent of the sun in the evening. All of sudden two wild elephant in the enclosure started charging, fighting and attacking each other with torrent of high pitched trumpeting. Khair Ul Nissa who was sitting besides Kirckpatric fell down from the imbalanced chair towards side of the gate inside the enclosure. Both the wild beasts come closer to the lady who, in an instant, stalked over the pillar of the gate and the wild elephants remained busy in a heavy tussle. For a moment the royal chair got shocked to see the Khair in danger. Kirckpatrick got down and rushed to the closed doors and asked the guard the help to evacuate the lady in peril. Guard opened the gate slightly and rescued the beauty queen instantly. Then the both the quarrelling pair of wild elephants fell down inside the deep muddy trenches towards the adjoining trench which was full of water, mud and darkness. Another giant tusker continued in extreme excitement throughout and attempted to break its way into the corral from the enclosure, shaking the bars with its forehead and tusks, it

Elephant Capture was an affair, full of action, thrill & excitement which the Kings of European nations used to admire, participate and appreciate.

Hundreds of labours, forest watchers, mahouts and British Offices used to involve in hunting and capture of elephants as well.

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went off in a state of frenzy into the jungle. Later on, in search of it with a female decoy elephant watching its amiable response, sprang fairly on the infuriated beast, with a pair of sharp hooks in his hands, which he pressed into tender parts in front of the shoulder, and thus held the elephant firmly till the chains were pressed over its legs, and it permitted itself to be led quietly away. Rest of the eleven elephants were allowed to remain lodged in the wet muddy trenches till the next two days so as to get calm, cool and acclimatize which, with the help of Kumki decoy elephants were chained, roped and carried away one by one to Hyderabad for further training and for getting adapted, accustomed to the newer environment where these beasts will further be prepared for battle and wars in the Nizam’s army.

Presently, now, if we visit the spot of Elephant Capture Spot in Chincholi, we see it lying dilapidated, derelict and

ramshackled surrounded by the deep trench and both the pillars of the gate still standing upright built upon stone masonry. Few trees in the centre of the enclosure could be seen which are of recent origin. Water spill over galleries, broken staircases, breached walls of the enclosure could be observed amid a valley of Dharmasagara forests which become lush green and blossom during the autumn season every year. The Khedda was a method of capturing wild elephants that was evolved in the North - Eastern states of India. Unlike other methods like Mela Shikar and the Pit method , whole herds could be captured by khedda. In Mela shikar individual elephants were isolated from the herd and lassoed with the help of trained domestic elephants called Kumkis. A mahout needed an extraordinary degree of skill to lasso a wild elephant and such men were called Phandes. Not all Phandes were men. Parbati Barua the daughter of the legendary Lalji Barua, Raja of Gaauripur , was a Phande. Lalji Barua specialised in the capture of wild elephants and is a revered figure in the elephant lore of the north-east. The pit method widely practised in the south was a simple and straight forward method. A concealed pit with a trap door was dug and a wild elephant was trapped in it. But it was cruel and more dangererous practice which used to fracture their bones and kill the elephants were later abondoned.This was not a very desirable method as more often than not the trapped animal would sustain a lot of injuries. With the khedda whole herds were driven into a stockade with the help of human beaters and trained elephants. At first a herd of elephants would be located and its habits studied. A suitable site

Decoy elephants in an encircle for elephant capture in Kabini River Back water Karapore near Mysore in Kheda held around 1970.

Wild elephants, tuckers, calves are being thrusted into the barricade

prepared for the purpose of capturing the wild elephants.

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Wild elephants being cordoned off towards barricade

many miles away would be located and a large stockade built. Human beater would then surround the herd from far away and slowly tighten their noose around the herd without alarming them. The herd would be slowly driven unknowingly towards the stockade. And then with a final push would be driven into the stockade. All this

could take weeks or sometimes months but the sheer numbers of elephants captured made it very cost effective. Once in the stockade the elephants would be isolated and domesticated. Once the elephants were in the stockade mahouts on trained elephants would enter the stockade to isolate individuals. This was an extremely dangerous part of the entire operation and usually involved excessively brutal methods. A British Forest Officer in Assam called A.J.T.Milroy was instrumental in stopping the mahouts from using brutal tactics. He laid down certain methods to be used and his works are became a standard for handling and maintenance of domestic elephants. G.P.Sanderson another Englishman introduced the khedda to the Mysore State and carried out several successful operations after a few initial setbacks. In fact the khedda came to be identified with the Mysore State. The Mysore Khedda was a spectacle

witnessed by various dignitaries of the Raj with special grandstands being erected for them to sit. The last Mysore Khedda was conducted in the 1970s at the Kakankote State Forest, now part of the Nagarhole National Park. Special poojas would be offered at the Mastigudi temple before the start. The temple and the site are now submerged by the Kabini dam and are only exposed when the waters recede during the summer. The Mysore Khedda also threw up the first indian star in Hollywood. A hollywood film unit was invited to film a special khedda.A young orphan who had been bought up by the mahouts at Karapura village stared in the film. He travelled with the unit to the US and went on to act in various hollywood films before returning. He was known as Saboo the elephant boy. The photographs

below were taken during the last khedda in Kakankote. The practise of khedda has now stopped and the old site is now part of the famous Kabini backwaters where wild elephants now find a sanctuary. In another incident in Chincholi, Arc Duke of Austria Ferdinand Franz 1893 illustrates in his memoirs, as we move forward, bound for some knolls and rocks which command an uninterrupted view of the whole plain. Herds of deer are scattered about, lazily couching under the trees, or feeding upon the finer herbage on the margin of the pools. Two cradle-like native carts made of stick sand rope each drawn by a small bullock, are hovering about in the distance, and each has lying down on its floor a hunting cheetah, hooded, fastened, and dinnerless. The chase begins. From our vantage ground we see one cart slowly and cautiously driven towards a herd of

Arc Duke of Austria the Franz Ferdinand 1893 with Cheetah and the hunts of Black bucks flanked by his companion and shikaris

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antelopes, and approaching them unseen and unnoticed. When within some forty or fifty yards the cart stops, a keeper jumps into it and slips and unhoods the cheetah, who is down on the turf in the twinkling of an eye. He

sees the grazing animals, and forthwith he begins to work to wards them. Step by step stealthily he advances, stalking every inch with measured, cat-like footfall, and taking advantage of every inequality of the ground, every tuft of grass, and every little boulder of rock, to cover his approach. Pace by pace onwards-now a dead stop-down for a moment he crouches. Inch by inch, he creeps nearer and nearer, behind a granite boulder he lays crouched for an instant, then on to its crest he crawls, and now with an overwhelming leap, a tremendous bound, and he is flying, feet through the air, into the very midst of the herd. A large fat buck-the consort of many does, the paterfamilias of numerous fawns, and who has been browsing a little apart from his household, has attracted the cheetah's attention. But the buck has seen his dread enemy just in time, and flies for dear life over the scrub, over the turf, among the palms. The cheetah follows close, now gaining, now losing ground. The chase is most exciting, and from our elephants' backs we see every yard of it. From the chronicle of Lord Curzon as he writes 1903, “Now it seems certain the deer, fleeter of foot, will escape; his springs and bounds are telling on the heavier and slower cheetah. But, no, the "stay" of that animal is greater, and his thirst for blood insatiable. For some minutes more the hunt continues; the deer doubles back from a top of trees, and comes into the open;-a fall in the lay of the land gives the cheetah a

momentary advantage; he sees it-one, two leaps, and he is on the deer's back and pins him fastly down. There is a cry, a struggle, an endeavour to bring the sharp horns into action, but the weight and strength of Jubata is overpowering. And it is all up with the lord of that herd-the hinds are widows, and the fawns fatherless. The keepers come up; they cut the throat of the dying stag, they feed with his life's blood Jubata aforesaid, who now re leases his hold, and suffers himself to be detached from his quarry”.

Wildlife wings have been critically important roles to play in policing illegal capture and conducting or supervising the capture of wild elephants for wildlife management purposes. State forest departments have a limited but tremendously important role as the owner and caretaker of perhaps 5% of India’s domesticated elephants which, while legally clearly the property of individual states, are spiritually or morally the heritage of the entire nation. Forest department elephants are important because they are the only elephants in India which can be systematically managed, studied, bred, used in researches etc. The elephant operations of state forest departments are living artefacts of the massive logging brought about by colonization. Krishnamurthy and Wemmer (1995a) state that, “It should be emphasized that the British contribution was mainly in organizing the elephant workforce and existing practices, and introducing westernized veterinary methods.” In light of a penchant for voluminous record keeping, surprisingly little has been written about the larger managerial aspects of elephant operations in forests. Beyond possessing elephants, many state forest departments employ highly

Lady Curzon with Lord Curzon after a tiger hunt in Tandur near Hyderabad 1903 AD

G P Sanderson, the then Superintendent of Kheddas for Maharaja of Mysore on Tiger shooting accompanying Mabel Trotter, hatted, corseted and gloved.

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experienced elephant managers whose wisdom would be essential in any attempt to better manage privately-owned elephants..The capture of elephants in India has produced much fascinating reading. The first book was G.P. Sanderson’s “Thirteen Years among the Wild Beasts of India” (1879), which describes his early kheddah captures in Bengal and also his 1874 capture of 53 elephants by kheddah in the B R hills of south India. This kheddah was accomplished in the face of a malediction by Hyder Ali, who after failing about a hundred years earlier, laid a curse on any man who should later attempt the task. Milroy (1927) wrote briefly but powerfully about catching elephants in Assam. Like many other Asian countries, as opionated by many wild life conservationist, if India can be said to have a de facto national animal, it must be the elephant. The tiger, the only other likely candidate, is too fierce and lacks the elephant’s myriad and mostly beneficent cultural and religious associations but the reality is otherwise. India had been a country much coveted, sought after and popular during the British Raj, for its unmatchable splendor of wild life, for majesty of dense forests, for grandeur of mystical supernatural experience and unbelievable mythological folklores. India being rich in bio-diversity, wild life, flora and fauna, opulently gifted with enormously prosperous natural ecosystems with magnificent tigers and elephants shall always be the destination for the world. Acknowledgment: Article is the outcome of visit to Kunchavaram in Chincholi Forest areas in Gulbarga District adjoining Andhra Pradesh border, where team of Forest Officers like Sh Sanjeev, Ramesh, Mohan, Sh Sanjiv K Raya and Bichappa a Forest Wathcer who facilitated the passage throughout the wide and extensive tour to most of the places of Dharmasagara, Burugdoddi, Shadipur and Chincholi forests. But for their help and assistance the write up would not have been possible. docudrama

Writer A K Singh is the member of Indian Forest Service serving in Working Plan & Management Wing of the Ministry of Forest, Ecology & Environment in the Government of Karnataka. India. The sparkling narrative is a dramatized historical non-fictional fantasy enriched by a wealth of many first and second hand sources-published and unpublished memoirs, letters and diaries.which bring this forgotten era of British Raj and Maharajas vividly to life. Contact aksinghifs@gmail.com, 9481180956 Date 20.1.2013 Gulbarga Karnataka, India.

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India. Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Centre, Bangalore, India. 12. Ramakrishnan, lJ., Santhosh, J.A.., Ramakrishnan, U.and Sukumar, R. 1998. The population and conservation status of Asian

elephants in Periyar Tiger Reserve, South India. Cunent Science 74: ll0-114. 13. G. M. 1973. Behavior and ecology of the Asiaticelephant in southeastern Ceylon. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 125: 1–

113.Nozawa, K. and Shotake, T. 1990. Genetic differentiation among local populations of Asian elephant. Zeitschriftfür Zoologische systematik und evolutionsforschung,28:40-47.

14. Sukumar, R. 1989. The Asian elephant: ecology and management. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.