Close encounter with a rogue elephant in Dalma hills near Jamshedpur

To the North of Jamshedpur lie the Dalma range – a wide swathe of hills and dense forest. A 195 sq. km part of this range which is home to many wild animals has been developed by the Forest Dept. as the Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary. Dalma Hilltop, which is the highest point (about 3000 ft) in the Dalma range, falls inside this sanctuary.

One can either trek up to Dalma Hilltop or drive on a kutcha (unpaved but motorable) road which branches off from NH 33 about 15 km from Jamshedpur. This unpaved road leads right up to the Shiva Temple on Dalma Hilltop – a distance of 20 km from the entrance gate of the Dalma Widlife Sanctuary off NH33. Prior to 03.07.10, I had driven only once to the hilltop – in April 2002, in my Maruti Esteem. However, I have trekked up 3-4 times in recent years.

On 03.07.10 we (my friend Ronald D’Costa, his wife Marian, my elder daughter Debashree, and I) started from Jamshedpur at 5:40 AM in my Suzuki Swift VDi – our destination : Dalma Hilltop. It had rained off and on throughout the night and it was nice and cool early in the morning. As we started, a light drizzle set in. We reached the sanctuary gate around 6:20 AM and bought our tickets (a nominal Rs 20 per head). The person at the ticket counter cautioned us that the road was quite slushy due to rains and some stretches were bad.

We started driving up the Dalma and reached the Forest Rest House (15 km from the gate) around 7 AM. The caretaker permitted us to use the balcony (which has a panoramic view of Jamshedpur) and we had a leisurely breakfast which my wife had packed for us. Luckily, the drizzle stopped just then and we saw a beautiful bright rainbow spanning the entire township of Jamshedpur.

▲ Rainbow seen from Dalma

▲ Jamshedpur city viewed from Dalma

▲ Ronny, Debashree and Marian

After breakfast we resumed our ascent to Dalma hilltop, about 5 km away. The Swift was taking the climb on the slushy unpaved road quite effortlessly in its stride, we were chatting away merrily and all seemed to be right with the world. Suddenly, about 3 km from the Forest Rest House, we spotted an adult male wild elephant walking towards us in the middle of the road. My immediate reaction was to stop the car and pull over to the side of the road. I expected the elephant to go past us down the road and I thought it prudent to give him as much of the road as possible and make no noise or movement which could alarm or agitate the animal. Ronny too agreed with this course of action and I switched off the ignition.

▲ Don approaching

But the elephant stopped about 40 ft away and kept staring at us silently for several minutes. We had no clue as to its intentions. Nor did we have any contingency plans for ourselves. Making the best of an unpredictable situation, I clicked several photographs of the elephant through my windshield. The elephant had only one tusk – the right one.

Suddenly, the elephant seemed to have thought things over and started moving towards us slowly but haltingly. We thought that it would go past us, but it came straight towards the car. It was frightening to see the huge animal headed directly towards us. After reaching the car, it actually nudged it with its trunk. We were petrified and thought that the animal could violently crush or overturn the car and kill us. Starting the car at this stage could have frightened or agitated the animal and I refrained from doing so.

▲ Don just inches from car

As we were expecting the worst, the animal abruptly backed off. It walked backwards about 20 ft and stopped. Ronny advised that we should start reversing and I started the engine and started moving back slowly. But the elephant again started moving towards us. Driving backwards on that bad and curvy road, that too when my heart was in my mouth, was very difficult. Also, I did not want to block the elephant’s way by bringing the car to the middle of the road.

▲ Don contemplating its next move

Debashree then suggested that we should bail out of the car and take cover in the forest. I stopped the car, taking care to position it as much to the right side as possible. To the right of the road was the hill and the valley was on the left. Mercifully, as I stopped the car, the elephant also stopped. We all came out of the car and started climbing the hill rapidly. The elephant, which was standing about 30 ft away from the car at this time, kept staring at us but made no move to chase us or come towards us.

▲ Passengers escaping to safety

With our hearts palpitating like crazy, we climbed quickly and felt safer behind some large trees and boulders. Debashree decided to get help from the CRPF station (set up to combat Maoist insurgents) about a km up the road and continued trekking up. Ronny, Marian and I hid behind boulders and kept observing the elephant.

The elephant remained stationary for about 10 minutes. Then it approached the car and examined it closely. God alone knows what went on in its mind, but it decided to push the car further to the side of the road. First it pushed the front part of the car to the hill side and the front right wheel went into a shallow ditch. Then it walked to the rear of the car and kept observing the car for several minutes from the rear. Then it approached the car, lifted the rear end by a foot or so with its trunk, pushed it a little to the hill side and lowered it gently. Now both right wheels were in the ditch.

When I saw the elephant lift the rear end of the car, I was almost convinced that he had decided to wreck the car and it would be a matter of seconds before my car turned into scrap metal. I love my car and the prospect of seeing a rogue elephant wrecking my car was horrifying. But surprisingly, both his pushing actions were done very gently and damage to the car was minimal and superficial. It seemed that his intention was to merely push the car to the side of the road. Probably he looked upon the car as an unnecessary impediment on his way (though I had stopped it on one side, leaving most of the road free for him to pass) which needed to be pushed more to the side to prove who is king of the road.

▲ Don stays behind car for a long time

After pushing the car, the elephant went about 20 ft behind it and observed the car intently for 10 minutes or so. He seemed satisfied with whatever he had done and decided that no further action was necessary. Thereafter he stopped looking at the car and started breaking some branches from nearby trees and eating. But he did not move away – as if a predator was guarding its ‘kill’. Only after half an hour or so it started moving downhill away from the car – that too haltingly. More than an hour elapsed before the elephant finally vanished from our sight and I felt bold enough to approach the car to inspect the damage.

▲ Car pushed to hill side by Don. What if I’d left the car on the valley side?

The car appeared pretty much unharmed. The elephant’s tusk had gone right through the car’s rear bumper (plastic) and there was a gaping hole there. The left front fender was slightly damaged, again due to the tusk. That was about all.

▲ Rear bumper pierced by tusk

▲ Tusk mark on front fender and bumper

Of course, both right wheels were in the ditch and due to low ground clearance (170 mm) the rear part of the car bottom was virtually resting on the shoulder of the ditch. Luckily, this part of the shoulder was only earth and mud. If it had been stone, the car would have had to be picked up by a crane because any effort to move the car forward or backward (whether under own power or tow) could have damaged the car’s bottom.

I tried several times to come out of the ditch by using the engine – the car did move forward / backward a foot or so, but then the front wheels would start slipping in the mud. I tried to improve the traction by placing some leaves, twigs, etc. under the front wheels but could not succeed. We needed another vehicle to pull my car out. Ronny and Marian had joined me by this time and he phoned his son to arrange for a SUV to be sent to us.

▲ Cool as a cucumber throughout, Ronny sips hot coffee poured from a thermos we carried

Meanwhile, Debashree had informed the CRPF station and they in turn had sent a message to the Forest Dept. But we were unaware of this and were getting worried about Debashree as she was not carrying her cellphone. Ronny took the trouble of trekking up to the CRPF station and escorted Debashree back to the car where Marian and I waited for help to arrive.

After a couple of hours Forest Range Officer and his staff arrived in a Tata Sumo. I had already fixed the towing eyebolt to the front of my car and was ready with a sturdy nylon rope which I always keep in my car. The Sumo pulled the car on to the road in a few seconds.

▲ Rope attached to towing eyebolt

In spite of the major ordeal we had gone through, we decided to complete our mission of driving to the Dalma Hilltop. We drove the Swift to the hilltop and then started descending after spending some time there. We were advised by the Forest Range Officer to halt at the Rest House on the way down to meet with Mr. S.E.H. Kazmi, Conservator of Forests (Wildlife Circle), Jharkhand who had driven down 120 km from Ranchi and reached the Rest House just then. Apparently, the message that had gone out from the CRPF post was that “a rogue elephant has demolished a car near Dalma hilltop and 3 persons are missing”. Obviously, this had created a lot of consternation in official circles and Mr. Kazmi decided to personally supervise the ‘search and rescue operations’.

Ronny and I met with Mr. Kazmi and other Forest Dept officials at the Rest House. The entire episode was analysed in detail. Following pertinent matters emerged :

1. Emergency messages sometimes tend to get distorted while being transmitted from person to person. Avoidable panic was created in official circles (Police and Forest) due to a distorted message of distress.
2. The seasonal migration route of wild Asiatic elephants passes through Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary and one may encounter wild elephants any time.
3. Wild elephants usually do not attack humans or vehicles unless they feel unduly threatened or a particular elephant has become cranky or roguish due to some reason.
4. This particular one-tusked elephant (nicknamed Don) apparently lost its left tusk during a fierce fight with another bull elephant some months ago.
5. A month ago, Don brutally trampled a forest guard to death inside Dalma sanctuary.
6. Don has been seen living alone (away from the herd).
7. When the Forest Range Officer and his staff were driving up in their Tata Sumo to render assistance to us, Don (who had moved a few km downhill by then) blocked their way too for about 45 minutes.
8. The main mistake we committed was switching off our engine. Apparently, when an elephant comes close to a vehicle and hears the purr of the engine, senses the heat and smells the fumes it perceives the vehicle as something alive and dangerous and usually decides not to mess with it. The same elephant (Don) came across two vehicles on the same day but its response was different only because in one car the engine was switched off and in the other it was running.
9. If one is running away from an elephant, it is better to go downhill rather than uphill because elephants apparently move more slowly and cautiously while going downhill as they may lose their balance.
10. All visitors to Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary need to be informed of the do’s and dont’s in the event of encountering wild elephants. This could be done through prominent signboards at the entrance gate as well as giving a printed leaflet along with the ticket at the counter.

We expressed our sincere gratitude to Mr. Kazmi and all other Forest officials and staff for their assistance and concern.

▲ Meeting with Mr. Kazmi

Subsequently we drove back to Jamshedpur in the Swift, very very grateful and relieved that all of us had emerged virtually unscathed from this encounter with Don. The encounter could well have ended in disaster. For city-dwellers like us, it was an experience of a lifetime. Personally, I came across a wild elephant for the very first time in my life and it was a close encounter of a terrifying kind which I’m not likely to forget till my dying day.

3rd (last) Free Service after 10,000 KM

Got the 3rd. free service carried out at PEBCO Motors workshop (MASS) at Sonari, Jamshedpur sometime back. Would rate their quality of work 5 out of 10. Specifically, the following issues need to be mentioned :
1) The workshop does not have the special tool to unscrew the engine oil filter housing cap. They used a 25 mm double ended spanner for it after removing the plastic engine cover (to create some space to move the spanner). I found this a very unsatisfactory arrangement which could damage the oil filter housing cap as well as some of the electrical cables leading to the glow plugs.
2) Both front doors make a rattling sound while closing when the glass is fully down. PEBCO mechanics tried to rectify this by putting some thermocole packings inside the door under the glass but failed.
3) I find it difficult to engage the reverse gear at times. PEBCO had no solution for it.
4) The service booklet specifies tightening of cylinder head bolts during this service (after 10,000 km). The workshop was not in a position to do this confidently and so this job was not attempted.
5) The mechanic attending to my car was not aware of '5-tyre rotation' and would have put the wheels at wrong places if it hadn't been for my intervention.

Clearly, Maruti Service leaves much to be desired.

Homing on to the Maruti Swift Vdi

My Maruti Esteem, though lovingly maintained and still in superb condition, was getting on in years and I had been thinking of a new car for somtime. My requirements from a car at present are mainly :

1) High fuel efficiency (I want to keep pursuing my old passion of long drives – like Jamshedpur to Bombay / Delhi / Gangtok, etc. – without thinking of having to get out of early retirement which I am enjoying immensely).
2) Space is not much of an issue as most of the time the car will carry only my wife and me. So a compact hatchback will also serve our purpose quite well.
3) Driving pleasure and comfort – car should not be too lightweight and should have as solid a feel as a good sturdy compact can provide. Since car will be self-driven, driving pleasure is very important.
4) Good quality of service, good service network and economical spares.

Diesel was my preferred choice because :

(a) not only is diesel substantially cheaper than petrol in India, being more efficient thermodynamically, every litre of diesel gives many more KM for the same cubic capacity or power
(b) with the advent of CRDI technology, new generation diesels have much less NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) than their older cousins
(c) being a mechanically oriented car lover, I was excited about the huge quantum leaps in diesel technology and wanted to try it out
(d) now that I have retired, this may well be my last car; new generation diesel engines have a much longer life than equivalent gasoline ones

After a preliminary survey of the cars available in India, I zeroed in on the following three cars and did a comparative study : Maruti Swift, Ford Fusion and Tata Indigo Dicor.

1) Maruti Swift : 1248 CC, 4-cyl, DOHC, 16 valve, max power 75bhp @ 4000 rpm, max torque 190 Nm @ 2000 rpm, kerb weight 1075 kg.
2) Ford Fusion : 1399 CC, 4-cyl, SOHC, 8 valve, 67bhp @ 4000 rpm, max torque 160Nm @ 2000 rpm, kerb weight 1180 kg.
3) Tata Indigo Dicor : 1396 CC, 4-cyl, DOHC, 16 valve, max power 69 bhp @ 4000 rpm, max torque 140 Nm @ 1800-3000 rpm, kerb weight 1155 kg.

From the above tech specs, the Swift theoretically emerges as the peppiest. Additionally, its price (around 5.2 lakh INR), sexy looks, service network (having owned two different Maruti vehicles in the past I'm satisfied with Maruti service and cost of spares), feedback posted by users on the internet, etc., clinched the decision in its favour. The nearest Maruti service station happens to be just 1 km from my house in Jamshedpur!

I went for a test drive in the Swift Vdi along with my younger daughter (who happened to be visiting) and boy, were we thrilled! It's a real peppy little beast. Just look at the specs of the Swift petrol and diesel -- though the petrol's max power is 12 bhp more, its 87 horses come at a high 6000 rpm; the diesel gives 75 horses at 4000 rpm only. I'm sure the petrol version's power at 4000 rpm would be much less than 75. And when it comes to torque, the diesel wins hands down -- an obscene (for its size and weight) 190 Nm at just 2000 rpm as compared to a measly 113 Nm at a high 4500 rpm for the petrol version. In the 6 years that I owned my Maruti Esteem, I reached a max rpm of 3000 a few times while climbing some ghats in the Darjeeling hills. Most of the time, I have driven around 1500 rpm. At my age (55 years), I'm no longer a speed freak. But it's nice to know that the max rated speeds of both the petrol and diesel Swifts are the same (160 kmph / 100 mph). I'll surely try out the max speed once in a while and share my experience.

During the test drive my daughter reminded me to try rough roads (not readily available in Jamshedpur!) and we did find a bad stretch and drove over it. The suspension felt solid. I'm told that the front suspension of the diesel version is appreciably better than the petrol one. Please note that the weight of the Vdi is only 75 kg more than the Vxi.

Some other interesting specs of the diesel engine : turbocharger (fixed geometry) with intercooler, 5-step multi injection (in every power stroke, the fuel is injected in 5 separate spurts, each individually metered and timed by the on-board computer), 1400 bar common rail pressure, chain drive timing system, cooled exhaust gas recirculation and an aluminium bed plate for the engine to reduce noise and vibration.

After the test drive, the decision to buy the Swift Vdi was obvious. I did not even bother to test drive the other two cars. By the way, I had booked a test drive for the Tata Indigo Dicor online, promptly received an acknowledgement that some dealer would contact me -- but they never did. BTW, I came to know that Tata's Dicor engine fitted on the Indigo is a flop and has a higher fuel consumption than the old non-Dicor version fitted on Indigos and Indicas. Tata engineers are now burning the midnight oil (and also scouting for tie-ups with reputed engine makers globally) to come up with a decent engine for the Indigo Dicor and the Indica V3 Dicor (slated to be introduced in 2008).

I booked the Swift Vdi a couple of weeks ago. I have been told that my car (Metallic Silky Silver colour) has been despatched from the factory at Gurgaon on 10.10.07. I'm eagerly waiting for it to arrive. Especially since 13.10.07 when my old Esteem was handed over to its new owner.

Check out my love affair with my earlier wheels at http://picasaweb.google.com/debashis1/MyWheels