Addressing the elephant in the room
CHENNAI: Almost everything revolves around elephants for all the indigenous artisans working under The Real Elephant Collective. Their day begins with checking messages on their ‘Aanai’ group on WhatsApp. After finishing all the household work, the rush is to reach their job units to make life-size elephant sculptures from Lantana Camara, a toxic and invasive plant that occupies major portions of the forest in which they live — Gudalur, Wayanad, BR hills and MM hills.
Completing almost eight hours of work, the next fight is to return to their homes safely without getting attacked by the elephants which wander around the forest, usually at night. Due to their craft, the elephants they make, get to travel around the world. Recently, 20 Lantana elephants greeted environment ministers at the G20 summit at Shore Temple complex in Mahabalipuram. In June, the artisans also received the Mark Shand award from the King and Queen of England for their innate understanding of nature and nuances. The artisans and director of the Collective speaks to CE about their elephant venture.
Skills showering solutions
The project Coexistence of Tarsh Thekaekara, his wife Shubhra Nayar, their colleagues Subash and Gautham under The Real Elephant Collective in collaboration with The Shola Trust, was an initiative started to curb the expansion of Lantana plants in the forest and simultaneously provide a livelihood for the people. Tarsh, director, The Real Elephant Collective, says, “The Lantana plants are toxic and have chemicals that suppress the growth of other plants.
Initially, we started by making furniture from it. It wasn’t working very well as all the designs were cheaper imitations of cane. It was not a high-value product and costs more than plastic.” In 2015, when Tarsh was doing his masters in Oxford University, UK, he stumbled upon the elephant creation at an exhibition of fiber-glass sculptures by The Elephant Family, a London-based NGO. Even though it was complicated at first as nobody knew how to make it and it made only Rs 30-40 lakh from 2008-15 totally, Tarsh comments that for the last few years (when they started making elephants in 2017) the business has made more than Rs 3.5 crore.
What started with 10 people is now an artisan community of almost 180 people. Tarsh says, “The model of hiring people has also changed over the years. Initially, we used to hire people to work full-time. Over time people who have undergone training have started their own groups. Currently, there are almost 12 groups working across MM Hills, Mudumalai, Wayanad and so on. Almost 100-120 people are working at all times. ”
Committing to Coexistence
From research, collecting the plants from the forest to processing them and doing the finishing work, most of the members are aware of the full process that goes into the creation of the elephant. Initially, it was only men who collected the plants and processed them. Over the years the number of women joining for training and proceeding with the elephant creation increased. Chithra Keerthi who has been working for five years in the Aloor, Kodamula unit says, “Initially I was the only woman in my unit. I used to sit in one corner quietly and do my work.
There were no people to talk to but I had to keep working as I found the job to be better than the estate jobs which paid less. Later, when everybody started receiving a steady income, more people joined.” Chithra commented that even during the pandemic, the job helped them to make money to sustain as the work was done in separate units, workers wore masks and took precautions. The workers are made to sign a contract of salary agreement. For each elephant it will be a certain amount according to its size and the money will be paid to them to their bank account every week, informs Padmini who has recently joined. She says, “We make almost Rs 400 a day. The rate can also vary depending on the number of elephants we finish in a certain time.” All the artisans jointly agree that the job which requires a hard work of six days a week is better than the daily wages job that they used to do earlier.
When asked about the risks of the job, Papanna who has been working for six years shares that since everyone is from the forest and knows the area well, there are not many problems. “Earlier I used to go for quarry work which was very dangerous. Compared to that, it is far better. This is almost like namma veetu velai (Our household job).” The women of the team had a different opinion when asked about safety. “Since the elephants wander around at night, we travel in autos for work and have to pay `100 daily for that. It is almost 1/4 of my salary,” shares Chithra who is the sole bread-winner of her family. Adding to that Padmini shares, “We have to come for work after completing all the household chores. We get up at 4.30 am so that we can finish everything by 8.30 am and reach work at 9 am.” The rainy season is also a bit hard for the workers as the drying process extends and the whole processing takes more time and effort.
Even though there are difficulties, the artisans are happy with their job and comment that the encouragement they receive through awards and recognition inspire them to work even more. Ramesh Maran, one of the artisans who received the award on behalf of all the artisans shares, “It was an achievement for the entire team. I have been working as a research assistant studying the availability of Lantana in areas like Muthumalai, Bandipur, Wayanad, and Sathyamangalam for almost six years. The project has given opportunities to a lot of people and is continuing to do so.” The team hopes to build more elephants and take them to different parts of the world. Through their project, they are not only sending sculptures but also the stories of the land and people who made it.