Will 'The Elephant Whisperers' shine light on elephants, indigenous communities?

As she accepted the Oscar for her short documentary The Elephant Whisperers director Kartiki Gonsalves said ldquoThe documentary allowed me to speak about the sacred bond between us and our natural worldmdashfor the respect of indigenous communities and the empathy towards other living beings we share our space with Thank you to Bomman amp Bellie for sharing their sacred wisdomrdquoBomman and Bellie being the folk who raise orphaned elephant calf Raghu and through that endeavour find each other and build a life together Gonsalves documented their lives in the forests of the Nilgiris since 2017 and the resultant 39minute documentary won India its first Academy award in the categoryAnd though she thanked them in the speech and in the interviews that came before and after the win there have been suggestions that the film could have done more than be a ldquolinear storyrdquo about the affection shared between the man and animal And the cynical have also pointed out the there is very little detail about these ldquoindigenous peoplerdquo in the film itself though Gonsalves said in her interview to this paper January 29 2023 lsquoI have never seen a happier elephantrsquo that she wanted to give the indigenous people of the forest a voice by capturing their symbiotic relationship with their habitat their knowledge of how to raise calves the reservoir of natural remedies and medicines to use for them and their ability to mimic the elephantrsquos natural life as much as possible ldquoThis is why we chose not to have a narrator itrsquos Raghu and Bomman telling their storyrdquo Gonsalves had said thenProducer Guneet Monga in pink sari and director Kartiki Gonsalves at the OscarsBut what did the film tell us about them The details of the people or tribe are missing and their relationship with the forest is captured only in onemdashalbeit breathtakingmdashshot of tribals gathering honey from a comb growing on the underside of a cliff Who are Bomman and Belliersquos people How did they inherit this knowledge over generations about caring for elephants Is it passed on to the next generation Do they like doing it What would their livelihood be otherwise Will the Oscar change anything for themOne of the first voices of dissent was that of journalist poet and activist Jacinta Kerketta who belongs to an Oraon Adivasi community She tweeted in Hindi roughly translating to ldquoThe harmonious coexistence between humans and elephants is under threat due to mining Stories of humananimal relationship have won the country accolades but if the winners stand with those fighting for forests land and water then that is true appreciation and respect of this liferdquoWe sought out voices of dissent that were loud on the Internet but found they preferred to speak softly and anonymously in person Their concerns are valid They did not want to cast a shadow over a winning moment for a colleague and their country Criticism would also risk coming on the radar of mighty decision makers and facilitatorsmdashSikhya Entertainment produced the documentary and Netflix distributed it A grudge could stonewall future projects for any filmmaker no matter how constructive and neutral their opinion beldquoFrankly I thought that All that Breathes by Shaunak Sen nominated for both the Oscar and the Bafta was more deservingrdquo a national and international award documentary maker told us ldquoItrsquos commendable that the film evokes sympathy without being a bleeding heart project but the narrative is too linear Bomman and Bellie came across as just compassionate people who lived in the area employed by the Forest Department A little more about Bomman and Bellie as indigenous people their tribe their collective livelihood would have helped It left me wanting morerdquo She also wants to know how the film will better their lives as tourists throng to meet Raghu Amu Bomman and BellieNot to forget that the elephant one of the five umbrella species hero animals selected for making conservation decisions because this will affect other species in the ecosystem is a naturally charismatic subject ldquoWould a story about a couplersquos relationship with a gharial gain the same momentumrdquoshe wonderedItrsquos trueA hardened part of us exercised our imagination and replaced Raghu with a Husky and suddenly the documentary film became an elaborate Instagram reel by Disney Many of the filmmakers we reached out to and there were more than a dozen sheepishly admitted to have not watched the film We suspect this was easier to admit than to give an off colour opinionCannes prizewinning filmmaker and photographer Amit Madheshiya while emphasising the film was mostdeserving of its accolades said that discussions about agency and representation of the subject should be encouraged ldquoItrsquos a tricky subject the world overrdquo he said ldquoand filmmakers such as Brett Story and documentaries such as Welcome to Chechnya have done it wellrdquoSo what is the right way of doing this With community leaders refusing to go on record we asked activists and journalists working in Indigenous andenvironmental spacesldquoPositionality is everythingrdquo said one environmental journalist speaking to midday ldquoThere is an immense power differential to be aware of when wersquore stepping out with our big Nikon lenses attempting to extract stories or traditional knowledge which can be used in different ways There is a gulf you sit across from as a privileged commentator as opposed to someone actually dealing with extraction of stories resources on a daily basis We must ask questions about our gaze and who benefits from itThe first step she says is to consult and take consent at every stage from the community When a newspaper reported that 54yearold Bomman had not yet watched the documentary as he was too busy caring for two orphaned calves Kartiki clarified on Twitter that ldquoBomman and Bellie were the very first people to watch the documentary at a special viewing by me They live in the core area of the forest and do not have access to streaming channelsrdquoShowing it to the community before it goes up consulting them on how they are represented are the first steps ldquoThen ask Would you like to come along and tell your story yourself We are always going to be the outsiders who have the privilege of returning to where we are but we have to be careful about not replicating the same exploitation and erasure of our subjectsrsquo stories or identities to serve our narratives or misusing their trustrdquo