Meet 14-yr-old girl who talks to elephants and they listen
A teenage girl from Jharkhand claims she can control wild
elephants by talking to them, but not everyone is convinced.
Nevertheless, Nirmala Toppo, a 14-year-old Catholic girl, has become a
celebrity in
Odisha after she used her skills to lead a herd of 11 elephants back
to jungle after forest department officials failed to chase them out of
Rourkela town.
This happened in June. Panic gripped the industrial city one night when the elephants entered residential areas from nearly dense forests.
In June, panic gripped the industrial city of Rourkela one night when a herd of wild elephants, including two calves, entered residential areas from dense forests nearby.
When the forest department officials failed to get the elephants to leave the city, they sought help from Nirmala, native of Jharkhand, Odisha's northern neighbor.
"When the herd entered the city, we tried our best to contain its movement. We managed to make the herd go into the local football stadium, but we were not sure how we could drive them back to the forest. It was a difficult task," admitted forest official P K Dhola.
As a last resort they turned to Nirmala.
"We knew of a tribal girl who lived in Jharkhand, who talked to elephants and was able to drive them back. We called up her father and she arrived along with some other tribal people from her village," Dhola said.
Nirmala acted as a real-life "pied-piper" when she managed to drive the herd back to the forest, much to the relief of the residents.
She walked many miles with the herd, guiding it out of town, in the process getting blisters on her legs which later turned septic.
"The infection is now gone and my wound has almost dried up," she told BBC Hindi from her hospital bed where her treatment was organized by the local Red Cross Society.
The Odisha government paid the girl for her services, Dhola said.
Nirmala says she talks to the herd in her local tribal dialect – Mundaari – and persuades the animals to "return to where they belong."
"First I pray and then talk to the herd. They understand what I say. I tell them this is not your home. You should return where you belong," Nirmala says.
It all started after wild elephants killed her mother. "I then decided to learn the techniques to drive them away," she explained.
Her father and a group of boys from her village help in her work.
"We surround the herd. Then I go near them and pray and talk to them."
However, some are skeptical about Nirmala's methods.
Rabi Pradhan, an Odisha-based social activist, says there is no scientific evidence that wild elephants can understand what a human says. Pradhan says the girl claims to talk to the herd in her own tribal language, but there is no basis for the elephants to follow what she says.
However, others explain such behavior by saying that tribal people and wild animals have been cohabiting in the forests for ages. "In Jharkhand, we call Nirmala a lady Tarzan. Whenever marauding elephants enter a village or destroys crops, the local forest department officials never turn up. It is then that the villagers approach Nirmala for help. And she is able to successfully drive away the herd after talking to them," said Niel Justin Beck, a member of the district council in Jharkhand's Simdega district, Nirmala's native place.
According to him, tribal people in Jharkhand know how to deal with wild animals with whom they have coexisted for centuries.
More than 3,000 elephants roam the forests of the Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh states, stretching, but over the past decade the region has become the epicenter of man-animal conflict.
According to the ministry of environment and forests, more than 200 elephants and some 800 people have been killed in the last 10 years.
The region is rich in mineral resources and encroachment of their habitat due to increased mining and industrial activity have caused problems for the movement of wild elephants.
A violent Maoist insurgency in the region has also added to the problem, say experts.
Forests provide easy shelter for the armed insurgents and large parts of the forests are heavily mined – frequent encounters between the security forces and rebels have also disturbed the wildlife habitat, they say.
This happened in June. Panic gripped the industrial city one night when the elephants entered residential areas from nearly dense forests.
In June, panic gripped the industrial city of Rourkela one night when a herd of wild elephants, including two calves, entered residential areas from dense forests nearby.
When the forest department officials failed to get the elephants to leave the city, they sought help from Nirmala, native of Jharkhand, Odisha's northern neighbor.
"When the herd entered the city, we tried our best to contain its movement. We managed to make the herd go into the local football stadium, but we were not sure how we could drive them back to the forest. It was a difficult task," admitted forest official P K Dhola.
As a last resort they turned to Nirmala.
"We knew of a tribal girl who lived in Jharkhand, who talked to elephants and was able to drive them back. We called up her father and she arrived along with some other tribal people from her village," Dhola said.
Nirmala acted as a real-life "pied-piper" when she managed to drive the herd back to the forest, much to the relief of the residents.
She walked many miles with the herd, guiding it out of town, in the process getting blisters on her legs which later turned septic.
"The infection is now gone and my wound has almost dried up," she told BBC Hindi from her hospital bed where her treatment was organized by the local Red Cross Society.
The Odisha government paid the girl for her services, Dhola said.
Nirmala says she talks to the herd in her local tribal dialect – Mundaari – and persuades the animals to "return to where they belong."
"First I pray and then talk to the herd. They understand what I say. I tell them this is not your home. You should return where you belong," Nirmala says.
It all started after wild elephants killed her mother. "I then decided to learn the techniques to drive them away," she explained.
Her father and a group of boys from her village help in her work.
"We surround the herd. Then I go near them and pray and talk to them."
However, some are skeptical about Nirmala's methods.
Rabi Pradhan, an Odisha-based social activist, says there is no scientific evidence that wild elephants can understand what a human says. Pradhan says the girl claims to talk to the herd in her own tribal language, but there is no basis for the elephants to follow what she says.
However, others explain such behavior by saying that tribal people and wild animals have been cohabiting in the forests for ages. "In Jharkhand, we call Nirmala a lady Tarzan. Whenever marauding elephants enter a village or destroys crops, the local forest department officials never turn up. It is then that the villagers approach Nirmala for help. And she is able to successfully drive away the herd after talking to them," said Niel Justin Beck, a member of the district council in Jharkhand's Simdega district, Nirmala's native place.
According to him, tribal people in Jharkhand know how to deal with wild animals with whom they have coexisted for centuries.
More than 3,000 elephants roam the forests of the Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh states, stretching, but over the past decade the region has become the epicenter of man-animal conflict.
According to the ministry of environment and forests, more than 200 elephants and some 800 people have been killed in the last 10 years.
The region is rich in mineral resources and encroachment of their habitat due to increased mining and industrial activity have caused problems for the movement of wild elephants.
A violent Maoist insurgency in the region has also added to the problem, say experts.
Forests provide easy shelter for the armed insurgents and large parts of the forests are heavily mined – frequent encounters between the security forces and rebels have also disturbed the wildlife habitat, they say.