Mark Roland Shand, popularly known as the Elephant Man and widely acclaimed for his efforts to save the wild Asian elephant, died on April 23, 2014, in New York.

He was the younger brother of Camilla Parker Bowles, Duchess of Cornwall and wife of Prince Charles, and the author of several books based on his adventures in Indonesia, India and Africa. But elephants endlessly fascinated him and his most memorable book recounts with unforgettable acuteness his travels on an elephant through eastern India.

He tirelessly worked to raise awareness about the dangers facing wild Asian elephants and the need to protect these gentle creatures.

In fact, on the day he met with an accident and sustained a head injury that caused his death, he had attended a fund-raising auction in aid of the charity Elephant Family. He felt that human encroaching upon elephant territory is changing the character and personality of the elephants.

“What is a essentially a peaceful herbivore has turned into a very cunning animal that is almost at war with humans.”

Of late, Odisha has turned into a veritable battlefield where the war between elephants and humans rages. Rarely, if ever, a day passes without newspapers reporting elephants demolishing houses, trampling on people, destroying crops and going on rampage.

Elephants also appear as victims. They are poisoned to death, electrocuted, killed for their tusks by poachers and sometimes they get run over by speeding trains. Elephant barriers have been built in the state capital to keep the beasts from straying into human habitations. But from time to time, elephants stray into the city and strike fear in the residents.

Recently, newspapers published a report of a brave young girl leading away a herd of marauding elephants away from her village.This running battle between humans and elephants seems strange in a land that has a history of a very intimate relationship with these gentle giants.

Elephants were and are considered sacred animal on account of their association with deities such as Lord Ganesha and goddess Lakshmi. The kings of Odisha were known as Gajapatis or lords of elephants and in devotional songs addressed to Lord Jagannath, the deity is praised for having rescued an elephant form the jaws of a crocodile.

In fact, in one of the many divine attires Lord Jagannath puts on at different times of the year, He is presented as the saviour of the elephant in distress. In our childhood, elephants passing through our villages was an exciting event and they were reverentially offered bananas coconuts and rice by the villagers and were treated with great affection and care.

In songs sung to put babies to sleep, they were likened to little elephants swaying joyfully.

In medieval Odia poetry, the gait of a beautiful woman was compared to the graceful movement of an elephant. Kings in every feudatory state in Odisha had elephant stables and catching and taming wild elephants was a great royal pastime.

In this context, Mark Shand’s passionate concern for elephants assumes special relevance. It should not be forgotten that his intimate association with elephants, which bordered on a lifelong obsession, began in Odisha.

In 1988, Mark Shand landed in Bhubaneswar to explore the possibility of buying an elephant.

Undeterred by all manner of obstacles placed in his way by men and circumstances, he finally succeeded in buying an elephant from a group of wandering mendicants following them all the way to Daspalla.

The deal was concluded with the help of all kinds of intrigues, farcical stratagems and support from the local police. Shand named the she elephant Tara, found a mahout and began an extraordinary journey across east India.

A Maratha nobleman accompanied him on this journey of discovery. During the journey trough the villages and small towns of Odisha, Shand discovered that Tara was no mute beast and that she had a very lively personality of her own and could be quite cunning and self-assertive on occasions.

Shand’s book Travels on My Elephant (Penguin, 1992) vividly chronicles this deepening of the bond between man and elephant and a growth of mutual understanding and trust. The book also provides valuable information on the unique association of Odisha with elephants. As he passes through Cuttack riding Tara, Shand informs us that “the invasions of Orissa began in AD 1205 with the purpose of securing the superior breed of elephants for which Orissa was famous. The most remarkable foray was made by the Delhi emperor Firoz Shah, who cut through the jungles of Orissa, crossed the Mahanadi river and occupied this fort, from which the King had fled. Here Firoz Shah spent some time hunting elephants...”

As the narrative of the journey unfolds, Shand discovers qualities in Tara that reveal her as an intelligent, mischievous and lovable being, qualities which we attribute to human beings and stubbornly deny animals.

The following gives an account of the pranks Tara plays on Shand: “At the sight of the gur, she placed two large front feet on the muddy. I gave her a small piece and then as quickly as possible, grabbed hold of one of her ears to try swinging up on her back. She turned quickly. For a moment, I was pulled through the water like a beginner trying water ski, letting go as I swallowed mouthful of dirty water. I started to swim back, gasping and choking. I felt something long and sinuous encircle me, and like a lifesaver rescuing a drowning man, Tara pushed me forward, depositing me in a wet bundle in the shallows. She trumpeted again and looked at me mischievously before returning to her watery playground.”

Shand’s original plan was to travel to Sonepur in Bihar riding Tara and sell her at the animal fair held there. But he had grown so deeply attached to Tara in course of their journey together that he simply could not bear the thought of selling her off to somebody. In the end, he left her in an elephant sanctuary and kept visiting her year after year. The lessons he had learnt from his experience of travelling on an elephant he summed up thus: “Save the elephant and then you save the forest and then you save yourself.”

In Odisha, where Shand’s unique journey of discovery began many years ago, these lessons must be absorbed and acted upon. We may win the battle between humans and elephants, but the world will be a pitiable loser.