Throughout history and across cultures, elephants have amazed and perplexed us. They have been feared and hunted as wild animals, attacked and killed as dangerous pests. They also laboured for humans as vehicles, engineering devices, and weapons of war.

Elephants have also been exploited for the luxury commodity of ivory, laughed at as objects of entertainment, and venerated as subjects of myth and symbolism. Throughout history humans have forged deeply effective connections with elephants, both as intimate companions and as spectacles of wonder.

Clearly, we do not wish to see the elephant disappear from the world. Talking about elephant welfare and conservation are also conversations about what it is to be humans in relations with elephants. It has become increasingly difficult to treat the elephant merely as an animal occupying its own habitat.

Elephants stray into our space. Our lives have intersected and our worlds have been forged through reciprocal influence, both direct and indirect. This presents us with some very profound challenges, not just for how we live with elephants, but also for how we think with them. Neither their nature, nor our culture can be explained without the other.

In Northeast India, elephants so often come in conflict with our village populations and vice versa. It is time to rethink our relationship to elephants, and get ourselves to live in greater harmony with them. But how? That is an enduring question that both the conservationists, the government, and the public at large must address.

Jane B., Don Bosco, Laitumkhrah, Shillong

  animals, wildlife