To the Elephant Graveyard - Hardcover

Hall, Tarquin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0871138174 ISBN 13: 9780871138170

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr, 2000

Synopsis

An account of life among the Khasi tribe in a remote region of India describes a people whose culture is intimately bound to the area's elephants, but this peaceful coexistence is endangered by a killer elephant on the rampage unless a hunt can find and destroy the animal.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

On India's North-East frontier, a killer elephant is on the rampage, stalking Assam's paddy-fields, murdering dozens of farmers, and leaving behind their mutilated, crushed bodies. Local forestry officials, powerless to stop the elephant, call in Dinesh Choudury, one of India's last licensed elephant hunters, and issue a warrant for the rogue's destruction. Reading about the ensuing hunt in a Delhi newspaper, journalist Tarquin Hall flies to Assam to investigate, convinced that no elephant could be guilty of the grisly crimes of which it is accused.

What Hall finds is that the Khasi live intimately with the elephants, riding on their bare backs, caring for them, talking to them, and praying to them. Here, elephants wrap their trunks lovingly around their masters' shoulders, and signposts in villages tell where domesticated elephants should be hitched. Though it seems a world of peaceful coexistence between man and beast, Hall begins to see that the elephants are suffering, having lost their natural habitat. Hungry, confused, and left with very little forest to hide in, herds of elephants are slowly adapting to domestication, but many are resolute and furious.

From intense accounts of the killer rogue to long travels on the backs of the village elephants, a fascinating world unfolds, replete with opulent portraits of the gorgeous emerald green hills, glistening rain forests, and the engaging people of North-East India. But behind the beauty, unimaginable murders are being committed by a crazed drunk rogue. To the Elephant Graveyard is a compelling account of the search for a killer in a region of India rife with insurgency, rich in folklore and superstition, and whose ancient ways are fast disappearing along with the ever-shrinking forest.

"[Hall's] fine storytelling and skill at handling dialogue come through as he pieces together a lively portrait of contemporary Assam, including a considerable amount of elephant fact and lore."--Library Journal

"[T]ravel writing that wonderfully hits on all cylinders...and the narrative tension brought to the tracking of the rogue is exquisitely riveting, climaxing in a movingly sorrowful scene.... [Tarquin's] readers will not regret one vicarious moment spent with the author on this trip."--Booklist

"[A] page-turning detective tale that recounts how the motley group of journalists, mahouts, and government-employed hunters stalked the killer elephants through the wild territory of India."--Publishers Weekly

"The legendary elephants' graveyard...haunts the memory long after one has closed the cover of a wonderful book that should become a classic."--Daily Mail (London)

"Tarquin Hall...introduces us to the darker side of the Asian elephant. It is more of a thriller than a straightforward travel book, and the writing is insightful and sensitive."--Literary Review

"Hall is to be congratulated on writing a book that promises humor and adventure, and delivers both."--The Spectator

Tarquin Hall was born in 1969 and has spent ten years living in parts of America, Africa, and Asia. Most recently he worked in India for three years for the Associated Press. He is also the author of Mercenaries, Missionaries, and Misfits: Adventures of an Under-Age Journalist, written when he was twenty-three.

Reviews

Equal parts travel story and adventure tale, this volume leads readers on a meandering journey through the farthest reaching corners of India. Hall, a Gen-X British journalist who published his first book, Mercenaries, Missionaries and Misfits, when he was 23, fills his book with wildlife preserves, rebel factions, farmers, indigent elephant caretakers (mahouts) and British holdovers from the days of the Raj. Working as an AP reporter, the author gets a lead for an article: an elephant is rampaging through Assam, India, inexplicably murdering the inhabitants of small villages. One mahout recounts how sick elephants are led into the forest where the elephants themselves pick herbs. The mahouts then prepare and apply the herbs, and in this way the elephants heal themselves. For Hall, this ritual raises many questions about the elephants: How intelligent are they? How compassionate? How murderous? Much of this book is filled with Hall's mercurial attitudes toward the elephant (he flip-flops between wanting the killer elephant placed on a reserve safe from humans and wanting the beast dead) and the Indian people he meets. His story is a page-turning detective tale that recounts how the motley group of journalists, mahouts and government-employed hunters stalked the killer elephant through the wild territory of India. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reading a news item that the Indian state of Assam put out a contract on a man-killing elephant, AP reporter Hall sought out the hunter given the job, whom he unfailingly addresses as Mr. Choudhoury. Initially wary of Hall's journalistic guise (was he a crusader against killing an endangered animal?), Mr. Choudhoury gradually understood that Hall grasped the nuanced dilemmas of the situation. The reader, needing less caution, will become immediately inveigled by Hall's portrait of India's remote northeast frontier, infrequently visited by foreigners. This is travel writing that wonderfully hits on all cylinders: the local color concerning Hindu temples and the Assamese is by turns respectful, satirical, or bluntly observant (as of squalor and destitution); the portraits of his companions on the "elephant squad," including the domesticated pachyderms Raja and Jasmine, are compactly vivifying; and the narrative tension brought to the tracking of the rogue is exquisitely riveting, climaxing in a movingly sorrowful scene. With that resolution, Hall ruminates on the Asian elephant's fate, while his readers will not regret one vicarious minute spent with the author on this trip. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Many elephants, wild and domesticated, are still found on the northeastern frontier of India known as Assam. Their numbers, however, are being significantly reduced by poachers and a shrinking natural environment. Official efforts are made to protect the elephant population, but at times it becomes necessary to kill rogue or rampaging elephants. Hall, a British journalist and the author of Mercenaries, Missionaries and Misfits: Adventures of an Under-Age Journalist, accompanied an authorized hunter to track down and kill one such elephant. Along the way he met a number of colorful characters whom he masterfully depicts in this engaging account. His fine storytelling and skill at handling dialog come through as he pieces together a lively portrait of contemporary Assam, including a considerable amount of elephant fact and lore. He also wrestles with the dilemmas of striking a balance with nature: When is it justified to kill a magnificent specimen of an endangered species? There is something for everyone in this most interesting account. Recommended for public libraries.DHarold M. Otness, formerly with Southern Oregon Univ. Lib., Ashland
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0871138174
• ISBN 13: 9780871138170
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240