Madhuri

The elephant and the monitor lizard · Corbett, 1990s

In the 1990s one cow elephant on the Dhikala grassland of Corbett had a habit nobody could quite explain. She would catch a monitor lizard — sometimes a tortoise — and keep it. She carried it in her trunk, swung it, tossed it into the air above her head, set it on her forehead and walked on with the herd as if nothing were unusual. The people who watched her season after season named her Madhuri, after the film star.

Nanak Dhingra photographed her on slide film over several visits. The frames below follow the game from start to finish: the catch, the lift, the toss, and then the long walk with the lizard riding on her head while the rest of the family grazes around her. Why she did it is anyone’s guess — play, curiosity, or simply a habit of her own — but those who knew Corbett in those years remember her for it.