Once up on a time in a no mans land - the world of EHRA

A week of hard physical labour in the hot desert climate, being drenched in sweat and dirt with a possibility of shower only once in a week, sleeping on the ground in the company of flies, scorpions, baboons, hyenas, elephants etc, eating by the camp fire with an international menu prepared by amateur cooks on a camp fire, living with a group of people from all walks of life for two weeks whom you have never met before, and tracking the wild elephants in an open 4WD moving in an inhospitable terrain where sitting comfortably and enjoying the landscape around will be an exaggeration!  Those are not one expects for a holiday. But those are experiences that one will never experience anywhere else in the world and come out with a satisfaction that I am glad I did that!

It was year 2010. When I decided to work for the EHRA I didn’t have much idea what to expect. Elephant Human Relationship Aid (EHRA) is a non profit organisation based in Swakopmund in Namibia. Their main aim is to improve the relationship between the desert elephants and the villages on the boundaries of the deserts in Damaraland. As the humans and the animals fight for the same resources (in this case, water), it’s obvious that they clash. In most of the cases with disastrous consequences for both parties – destruction of property in case of humans and being shot by the humans in case of elephants. EHRA tries to avoid this conflict, by securing water points by building walls around them, repairing the walls destructed by the elephants and monitoring the health and movement of the elephants in the deserts. They try to achieve their goals mostly in the form of volunteer works – the volunteer bring in the money and manpower. The volunteer work covers duration of a minimum of 2 weeks to 3 months. The two week schedule includes the construction work in the 1^st week and the elephant patrolling in the 2^nd week.

 Having been in Namibia before and having fallen in love with the continent ever since, it seemed like a logical decision for me to go for holidays there. But to combine the volunteer work with the holiday seems to be an outcome of my frustration with the job that I did for a living. I wanted to do something that I can look back later on and say that I am proud I did that. The greedy world where I work unfortunately didn’t give me that satisfaction. It’s a world where money rules, something which most of us are familiar of.

 When I felt that I reached the limits of my personal and professional stress, one day I left. Nothing bothered me anymore in this greedy world, I just wanted to get out of here and do something good. To my boss I left a simple message, “Not reachable in the next 3 weeks!” Just like that, to the continent where I had the best memories, not thinking much about what to expect, to work for some organisation which I thought had the similar views about world and its inhabitants, to get to know about the biggest mammal on the land that rule the Namibian deserts and the people who had mixed feelings about their gigantic visitors. For me the highlight was an opportunity to live in the bush, far away from the comforts of modern day, under the clear African skies, in close contact with the flora and fauna of the Namibian desert. I was excited!

 The moment I landed in Namibia, I knew I did the right decision. I never understood what attracts me to this continent again and again. Or is it just Namibia, with its empty spaces and amazing landscape? Or is it the people and the simple life they follow. I don’t know. The only thing I knew was that I can relax, forget about the outside world and sleep like a baby there.

 After an initial briefing at Swakopmund by R (the project co-ordinator) and N (the project manager) we headed for the first stop in the desert, the base camp. Situated on the banks of the Ugab river bed in a no mans land surrounded by hills of rock boulders, it gave us a good impression of what else to expect in this adventure. Ours was an international mixture of 9 individuals, from all walks of live in an age group from 19 – 40 years. Some beginners like me, some on their 2^nd term or work plus patrol and some who came for 2 weeks and ended up staying for 3 months! Everybody had the same intentions, to do something good and also to know more about the country, people and its culture.

After staying a night in the base camp and stocking up the food and water required for the next week, we left to the construction site on the next day. The site was decided by N at the request of MET (Ministry of Environment and Tourism). To repair the walls around a water reservoir destroyed by the elephants and to build a new wall around the water pump in a farmers land near to the border between the northern and southern Damaraland. It’s a place which will not show up in any google maps, in an inhospitable terrain where one will wonder how life can sustain there under those harsh climates. But there he is, a farmer living with his family along with his cattle in a land frequented by elephants and looking for help from the authorities to repair the damage done by the animals which will eventually threaten his livelihood. An ideal recipe for conflict between humans and the elephants.  Some has decided to go for the violent path – shoot the elephants – before. But for EHRA this is their working field, exactly the kind of situation that they have long tried to avoid. And that became our motto too for the next two weeks.

We woke up at sunrise every day. After a quick breakfast we headed for the construction site. Our camp was on a riverbed close to the construction site. Our constant companions were scorpions (all of them venomous) and flies!! And hyenas at night (we just heard them, no body saw them I guess). The construction work was hard physical labour.  Work included digging for the foundation of the walls, collect the rocks and sand needed for the walls from the surroundings. Sand was collected from the riverbed near by and huge rocks from the surrounding hills. The farmer and his family were very kind. They were poor by the western standards, but well off by the black Namibian standards I think. They worked with us the whole week and even invited all of us for lunch one day on his sons’ birthday. N said that he never experienced anything like that before (being invited by the farmer in the projects he worked before). The food was very traditional and tasty. For me personally, it was the highest point of the construction week. To be invited by an African family whom I have met only a couple of days before was very touching. Something that one cannot expect to happen in the rich western world. The farmer was poor, but they seem to be very happy with what they have. After 5 days of camping there, when it was time to go, the farmer and his family thanked us for the work we did. We managed to finish the wall around the water pump almost completely. It was hard work; I could literarily count all the muscles in my body which were previously unknown to me! But the knowledge that the farmer and his family was very grateful to us for the little work we did was more than enough for me to forget all those discomforts. Then I knew I did the right thing.

We returned to the base camp on the weekend for our weekly shower and rest! Some of us climbed the nearby hill to enjoy the beauty of the sunrise and the beautiful landscape extending up to the Brandberg mountains. Some decided to play football on the riverbed. And the others relaxed reading books or listening to music. The big boss J who is also the founder of EHRA arrived at the camp on the weekend. He has decided to do the patrol week. We got a small briefing about the risks involved and also how to conduct oneself in the presence of elephants.

The patrol week was an incredible experience. We travelled in inhospitable terrains in a 4 WD, searching for the secretive elephants through regions blessed with amazing natural beauty. On each day at sunset we camped at places where we landed up. i.e. different places on each day. The harshness of the terrain implies that it’s a test of endurance for the 4WD and you hardly get a chance to sit properly in the truck, most of the time you are just bumping from one corner to the other. In addition you get first hand information about the biggest mammals on the earth from someone who has decades of experience on the field and also someone who is deeply passionate about what he does. J is partly eccentric, funny, half bushman and according to the locals “an elephant whisperer”. I don’t know how much of it is true, but the elephants definitely had a different approach to him than others. Or in other words, he respects their space. Some times in the presence of elephants he makes a strange sound with both his palms closed together. Once I asked him what that means. He said that he doesn’t actually know what it does to the elephants. But the elephants always respond to it in such way that they looked very relaxed. That’s one thing that always surprised me. From where I come from in India, the elephants always charge at humans when we are close to them. But here, they were always relaxed, unconcerned by our presence. There were instances where they just passed by our 4WD within few meters from us or came very close to us to have a close look at us. But they were never aggressive, or uncomfortable to our presence. J said that they do behave differently when they see people in the government vehicles, or they come across local people. Its one of the reasons for his “elephant whisperer” nickname as the local people and the government officials are perplexed why the elephants respond differently to him. I guess it has a lot to do with the amazing memory these animals have, which we often read in articles and reports.  The elephants that we came across do seem to recognise either J or the vehicles from EHRA. J talked about instances where when the relationship between the herds and the villagers got worse, the herds hang around the EHRA base camp. May be because they know it is safe place. J believes 100% in what he does and that shows in the results of EHRA work so far. In the last 6 years EHRA has completed around 80 walls at different sites in the southern Damaraland. This is in addition to the other projects like school renovation, training courses for the rangers, elephant awareness program among villagers etc.

One day during patrolling we stopped at the top of the mountain ranges to look for signs of elephant movement. We didn’t see any elephants the whole day, though we saw many tracks all along. But all of them were one or two days old.  From the place where we stood, for all of us it was a 360 degree possibility to search for the tracks. Some how J decided to move in one particular direction on foot and about 100 m ahead we saw new foot prints of the elephant. Tracks which were not more than 5 hrs old! When asked later about the reason for moving in that particular direction J said it’s just a feeling. All other directions didn’t feel right! Yes, there are no scientific explanations for events like that. But in the book “Elephantoms” from Lyl Watson, he cites experiences from elephant trackers who “feel” the presence of elephants, though there are no indications of them in the form of sound or physical presence. He talks about the vibrations and the infrared frequencies which the elephants use to communicate with other herds hundreds of kms away. Can humans feel such vibrations? Scientifically speaking, no! Then what about the “feeling” that these people talk about? I don’t know, but I could see that something is different with them.

The more I learned about these amazing mammals, the more I fell in love with them. After the one week of patrolling, I ended up having a lot of respect for these giants that ruled the Namibian deserts. It’s not just the size, but their social structure, the behaviour and their fight for survival against all odds that impressed me. They are generally called desert elephants though desert adapted elephants would be a more accurate description. This is because of their amazing memory to find the water points and food at different seasons, with the information probably passed on through generations. It’s a matriarchal society with the matriarch having absolute control over every decision of the herd from the size, movement, maintaining the discipline of the young members and throwing out the rogue ones, and helping the younger cows in the growth of their calves. The elephants have a life span of about 60 – 70 years and they die when the teeth grow old and fail to chew the food efficiently for them to survive. They have an amazing capability to move silently and also to stay still and blend with the surroundings to avoid detection. They can move at a speed of approximately 15 km/hr and also can walk more than 100 km non stop in search of food and water. They are supposed to communicate with each other within the herd using infrasound. While watching them, I was always clueless about how they communicated with each other. All of a sudden they will start moving or stop moving without even looking at each other for commands. J said you can see movement of the tip the trunk and bending of one of the toes when they communicate with each other for example between the cow and a calf. The more I learned about these amazing animals the more I was fascinated by them.

After spending 2 weeks with the EHRA team it was time to say good bye. No words can explain the freedom and peace of mind that I experienced while sleeping under the incredible African skies.  Nor can I explain the satisfaction that I felt when the farmer and the family thanked us for the small work we did. For two weeks, the outside world and its complicated problems were alien to me, in fact I never thought about it. Nothing in life seemed to be important, no physical or material wishes, no expectations or disappointments and I was living a life which was simple, peaceful and rewarding. It was like resetting ones life to the basics. The simplicity of life that I experienced made me wonder about the mad race of humans towards the material things or artificial pleasures. I think it gives only temporary satisfaction to ones life. The trip made me realise that only when one is at peace with himself can he enjoy the life he has. All the money and comforts of the western world didn’t give me that. But for most of us it’s not easy or mostly impossible to run away from the life we have to search for the life that really makes us happy. I still have to acknowledge that I got the opportunity to figure out what is missing in my life only because the so-called unsatisfying job paid me enough money for my adventurous trip. The whole experience also taught me that the path I followed, which I thought will eventually bring me happiness, also failed to deliver what I expected of it to deliver. It was just a mirage!  I don’t know where I will go from here. Carry on with the monotonous life that I have? Probably I will! Or sit down and do a dissection of the life I had till now? Now that the batteries are recharged, it may be the right thing to do. It takes a lot of courage to move away from the comforts of life one has and follow the hard way of searching for a life that motivates you to live a life that is worth living. I hope I will have that courage one day!