The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence ; Published by Pan ;Pages 387 ; Price Rs 550/- ************************** All of us grew up with animals. Some had pets. Those who could not afford resorted to books of animals. From early years we were fed on Aesop’s Fables and the lovely animals of Panchatantra. As we grew up we had the company of the animals of Lewis Carrol , Rudyard Kipling and Paul Gallico We were promoted to the company of actual animals portrayed by James Herriot,George and Joy Adamson, Gerald Durrell, Jim Corbett and Kenneth Andersen. On this fantastic landscape there emerged a giant—Lawrence Anthony and his game sanctuary in Thula Thula in Zululand. He was a South African conservationist who was asked to accept a herd of “Rogue elephants in his Game Reserve”.It was certain that if he did not accept the herd would be killed. Lawrence risked his life to form a bond with these troublesome elephants. He realised what a special family they were—under the wise Matriarch Nana,her warrior sister Francis and the children who struggled to survive. Thula Thula is 5000 acres of pristine bush in the heart of Zululand—natural home to much of the indigenous wild life of Zululand including the majestic White Rhino,Cape Buffalo, Leopard, Hyena,Giraffe, Zebra, Wildebeest,Crocodile and many species of Antelope as well as Lynx and long pythons and white backed vultures. To learn the background of Lawrence. Anthony’s grandfather was a miner who immigrated to South Africa from Scotland on a mail ship in the 1920s. His father founded an insurance business and took the family around southern Africa as he set up offices in small towns. Lawrence was born on Sept. 17, 1950, in Johannesburg, and as a youth liked to roam the African bush with his pet German shepherd. He followed his father into the insurance business, then went into real estate development. In the mid-1990s, Anthony decided to turn his hobby into a career and bought one of South Africa’s largest game sanctuaries, Thula Thula reserve. Anthony’s most widely publicised work was after the United States and its allies invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003. Hearing that Baghdad had the biggest zoo in the Middle East, he was in Kuwait within days and packing a car with veterinary supplies before crossing the Iraq border in the wake of the United States soldiers. He arrived at the zoo finding clouds of flies swarming the carcasses of animals. Looters had stolen many others. Of the 650 animals in the zoo before the invasion, just 35 were still alive, mainly large ones like lions, tigers and a brown bear native to Iraq. They were in such sad shape, he said, that he initially wanted to shoot them to end their misery. Anthony worked in Baghdad for six months, often helped by American soldiers, who volunteered their time after a day of patrols. He bought donkeys to feed the carnivores. He hunted down one giraffe that had been stolen; another had been eaten by starving Iraqis. He rescued the Hussein family’s pet lions and tigers. When he left Iraq, the animals were healthy, the cages were clean and the zoo had been preserved. The United States Army’s Third Infantry Division gave Anthony a medal for his bravery. Anthony joined with Graham Spence, an author and his brother-in-law, to write a book about the experience, “Babylon’s Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo”. Elephants were not part of his plan until 1999, when he got a call offering him nine of the animals — three adult females, three young elephants, an adolescent bull and two babies. He was told they were wild and troublesome .His common sense told him to refuse, but he was the herd's last chance of survival: they would be killed if he wouldn't take them. He devoted his life to animal conservation, protecting the world's endangered species. In the years that followed he became a part of their family. And as he battled to create a bond with the elephants, he came to realise that they had a great deal to teach him about life, loyalty, and freedom. The Elephant Whisperer is a heartwarming, exciting, funny, and sometimes sad memoir of Anthony's experiences with these huge yet sympathetic creatures. Set against the background of life on an African game reserve, with unforgettable characters and exotic wildlife, Anthony's unrelenting efforts at animal protection and his remarkable connection with nature will inspire animal lovers and adventurous souls everywhere. We all know that many animals grieve the loss of family and friends. Here's a wonderful acknowledgment of broken-hearted elephants mourning he loss of their human friend, Lawrence Anthony. His friend wrote, "Tonight at Thula Thula,the whole herd arrived at the main house, home to Lawrence and I. We had not seen them here for a very long time. Extraordinary proof of animal sensitivity and awareness that only a few humans can perceive. And Lawrence was one of them. Lawrence's legacy will be with us forever at Thula Thula." However, there is so much more to learn from the book. There’s the internecine and tribal warfare among the Zulus that at one point results in a contract being taken out on Lawrence’s life. There are the tales–sometimes happy and sometimes tragic—of the other animals that share Thula Thula with the elephants, including: crocs, rhino, cape buffalo, snakes, and—of course—the humans and their pet dogs. And, sadly, there’s a constant war going on against poachers that occasionally results in a firefight. The author is told these pachyderms are unruly and are to come into the possession of a big game hunter to be shot if he doesn’t take them. There are no elephants in the area of Thula Thula, and taking them on is a big risk. The neighbors are opposed because if the elephants get out they could cause untold damage—even if not maliciously. Furthermore, these elephants have had bad experiences with humans; the only adult bull had recently been killed—making them all the more hostile. These elephants have a history of escape, and when a herd of elephants wants to escape, it’s hard to keep them in. They are five or more tons of raw power. In fact, the herd does escape once early in the book, and a major drama unfolds as a result. There’s pressure on Lawrence to get rid of at least the matriarch and another female, Frankie, who is almost the same size as the matriarch and is even more aggressive. Eventually, he gets the herd to calm down through patience and an attempt to understand them. However, even as the herd becomes calmer and actually friendly toward Lawrence, there are always new challenges popping up. They add an adolescent who comes in alone, its entire family having been killed off. This history makes the new addition skittish, angry toward humans, and dangerously aggressive. By the book’s end, there is even a new generation being brought into the fold. A lot of the book is about communication, both the stomach-grumbling elephantine intraspecies communication and the interspecies communication between the author and the elephants. It turns out that elephants can communicate with others across great distances, most notably by stomach rumbles that largely take place at a frequency outside human capacity. There is also humour. There are times when all one can do is to accept that elephants will be elephants and gardens will be trampled and swimming pools will become watering holes. There’s no maliciousness. It’s just that five and six ton animals leave their mark wherever they go. They are intelligent but unsubtle creatures. Anthony persuaded African rebels who were wanted as war criminals to protect the few remaining white rhinoceroses prowling their battlegrounds. He fought to save crocodiles and other species. To preserve wildlife and their habitats, he showed antagonistic African tribes how they could benefit by cooperating in setting up game reserves to attract tourists. He worked with diplomats and lawyers to introduce a proposal to the United Nations to prohibit using conservation areas or zoos as targets of war. Since his death, his son Dylan told reporters, the herd has come to his house on the edge of their reserve every night. Anthony's story of his trials and tribulations in preserving a herd of African elephants is a parable for the continent. The Elephant Whisperer holds you rapt to the very last. P.P.Ramachandran. 16/8/2020.