For centuries, Hindus have
revered elephants as the
earthly representation of Lord
Ganesha. But that adoration is wearing thin for some in
India, as the owners of coffee estates battle with the elephant
population for territorial rights. A stirring, award-winning documentary sheds light
on this grim man vs. animal conflict.
You are viewing a scene of a huge structure being
constructed with heavy logs of timber, multiple men
yelling in an Indian language as they struggle together
to bring each piece into place. They are aided by an
elephant, which is guided by a mahout—an elephant
caretaker. This very elephant will reside in said structure
for the rest of its life. Visuals that follow include
dead crops, dead people, dead elephants…what’s the
connection, you wonder?
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The title Elephants in the Coffee
may conjure pleasant images and aromas of exotic
coffee beans. The subject of this documentary, however,
is nothing less than grim. Less than an hour long, it
addresses the conflict for survival between the
elephant herds of Nagarhole National Park in Karnataka
and the coffee plantation owners whose estates
lie close to these forests. It’s a complex struggle that
the documentary attempts to capture in all its nuances
through the voices of all the stakeholders—at least, the
ones that can speak a language we understand.
International photographer and author D. K. Bhaskar stumbled upon this story when in southern India on an experiential photography expedition with a group of American students. The trip was organized through his nonprofit Children Learning International Cultures Abroad (CLIC Abroad), formed to strengthen cultural understanding between India and the United States
through photography.
During one such trip intended to document the lives of mahouts, the group realized that an area that previously held only 11 elephants in captivity now
held 35, within a span of just two years.
(Left) D. K. Bhaskar and Tom Grant
made Elephants in the Coffee.
“That’s when we began to ask what’s going on—and the issue seemed to be the growth of coffee
plantations and the inability of other methods of managing elephants to effectively keep them out of conflict with people who worked on those plantations,” says Thomas Grant, Assistant Professor of Journalism at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia. Grant worked with Bhaskar on this documentary, and it was his students who captured some of the
footage as well as shared their experiences in the
documentary. The two met through Bhaskar’s nonprofit and have remained friends for nearly a decade.
Grant’s background as an award-winning journalist came into play in writing the documentary, as did Bhaskar’s prior experience while working in India as
an elephant population specialist.
Despite working on a tight budget, the filmmakers present all the angles involved in understanding the issue. Some of the footage had to be obtained from multiple sources in India, making the process of putting it together much longer. While the footage being used dates to 2012-2013, with subsequent filming trips in 2014-15, the ideation, storyline, and creation happened in 2016, for a final release date at the end of March 2017. So far, the documentary has had over 40 screenings in eight countries and has
won several honors.
The documentary is a truly journalistic endeavor in that it states the bald facts without any other agenda than to bring attention to an issue that is cause
for concern. Grant makes the point, “In media, especially documentary filmmaking, there is usually somebody with a point of view who funds a project and
that is how that project is shot. In this case, we did
not have a specific point of view to promote. We came
as total outsiders learning about the situation and trying to understand it.”
The documentary does suggest that there are ways for all parties to coexist, and there might be better outcomes than currently achieved. “The outcomes at the moment are pretty dramatic, with the latest data showing that in India one person a day is killed by an elephant. The World Wildlife Federation says that conflicts over agriculture are the greatest threat to elephants right now. That tells us this is something that must be addressed,” says Grant.
Currently, in southern India, that
solution is one that is culturally specific
to the region: the hiring of mahouts,
from regional tribes that are
elephant caretakers by tradition. It’s a
solution that the Indian government
has chosen to ensure elephants and
humans involved in the conflict are
out of each other’s and harm’s way.
How well this works on the ground is
debatable. Intimidating an elephant
into submission, before using it to
capture another, adds another unexpected
element.
The views in the course of the
documentary contribute to a larger
understanding of the elephant landscape,
the complexity of the conflict,
and why the documentary has a powerful
connection with humans. It includes
inputs from not just the plantation
owners and laborers but also
conservationists, biologists, forest
rangers, veterinarians, and mahouts.
Grant observes that the subject
of the documentary is a difficult issue
to address, going by the responses
at screenings in the U.S. While those
in rural areas such as Tifton, where
the agricultural college he teaches
at is located, might be concerned
for the safety of the farmer, people
in urban areas and larger cities tend
to think more strongly about the
elephant. Reconciling the interests of
the people involved with the interests
of conservation and elephants is not
an easy matter.
Even as they are seeking larger
distribution and audiences to spread
awareness and take action, Bhaskar
and Grant continue their work with
CLIC Abroad, building international
connections between students. They
have plans to establish an elephant
education center in Nagarhole National
Park to help reduce human-elephant
conflict and maintain the
image of an elephant as an important
part of nature. They are also working
to secure grants/funding to test aerial
surveillance equipment manufactured
in the U.S. to see if elephants can
be traced from the sky in real time, as
a solution to reducing the death and
destruction in the area.
So when all is said and done, are
human interests more important or
are elephants? Elephants in the Coffee
certainly provokes viewers to think,
express themselves, and act—before
more precious lives are lost, both human
and elephant.
Former Atlantan Ruksana Hussain is
a communication specialist and freelance
writer who is now based in Los Angeles,
California.
Children in the camp.
