The Catholic girl from Jharkland claims she began talking to
elephants after her mother was killed by some pachyderms. “I then
decided to learn the techniques to drive them away”. The technique
Nirmala refers to involves praying and literally talking to the
elephants. “First I
pray and then talk to the herd. They understand what
I say”. By using these simple “tricks”, the girl helped the authorities
of Rourkela deal with a herd of elephants that had settled in a
residential area of the city. “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,” forest official P. K.
Dhola said. Out of options and pressed for time, they remembered that
there was someone who could help them. “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”.
Nirmala didn’t disappoint her people: she walked many miles with the
elephants, until she got them back to the forests. This caused her
infectious blisters on her feet, but as she states, “the infection is
now gone and my wound has almost dried up”. Although what Nirvala did
worked as a charm, there are skeptical voices that doubt her methods.
For example, the social activist Rabi Pradhan points out that there are
no scientific studies demonstrating that elephants understand human
vocabulary. Indeed, if there was a study asserting that, elephants would
have to be polyglots. However, Nirmala claims that she speaks her
tribal language when she addresses the elephants and that this is why
they understand her.
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