Short film on man-elephant conflict in Tamil Nadu receives international praise

The 18-minute long film, Kaliru, has won multiple awards and nominations

“One of the most startling things we observed while filming this movie, is how humans are completely altering elephant behavior in different landscapes,” says Santhosh Krishnan, one of the directors of the film “Kaliru” – a documentary, charting problematic human-elephant interactions in some of the most conflict-prone landscapes of Tamil Nadu.

“In the forests bordering Sathyamangalam and Hasanur, elephants routinely wait for trucks carrying sugarcane, by the side of the road. When the vehicles stop at the check post, they take sugarcane from the trucks. At least 20 such elephants exhibit this kind of behavior. They have have come to rely on these trucks as a source of food and rarely venture into the forest,” said Mr. Krishnan.

The film was made by Mr. Krishnan and Jewsin Kingsly, a naturalist from the Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. “Kaliru”, meaning bull elephant, is around 18 minutes long and is narrated by renowned wildlife photographer and conservationist Belinda Wright. It is garnering plenty of attention and acclaim by conservationists in India and abroad. It has won and been nominated for multiple short film awards, and was made to sensitise young people about the threats that elephants in India face, said Mr. Kingsly, who is a resident of Mettupalayam.