Selfies with Wild Elephants in Kerala, India
In the lush wildlife reserves and verdant plantations of Kerala, particularly around Thekkady and Wayanad, a dangerous pattern persists among tourists. Enchanted by sightings of wild elephant herds, visitors often stop their vehicles or leave designated trekking paths to attempt close-up photographs. This critically underestimates the elephants’ astonishing speed and potent protective instincts, especially of calves. What begins as a mock charge can become devastatingly real in seconds, leaving no time for escape. Victims are tragically trampled or crushed, resulting in fatalities that, statistically, outnumber those caused by tigers in the region annually, highlighting a fatal misjudgment of wildlife boundaries.
Wild beasts charge visibly in India – but altitude sickness creeps invisibly in the Himalayas. The next page ascends the deadly denial on Everest Base Camp routes, overlooking headaches and nausea for the summit view that ends in collapse…
