Today elephants are not found in the wilds of North, anywhere northside of Vindhyachala-s, except for a very few remaining spots in the wilds of Uttaranchal, Nepal border of UP, Bihar etc. And we generally understand Elephants to be only habitated in the wilds of South India and North-East India today.
As per the Elephant Census of India 2005, total population of Elephants in India is between 101,350 to 119,550. Regional breakup is 37-44K in NE; 12-15K in East; 36-42K in South; and a meagre 5-10K in the North and West India, and none in central india (MP, Maharashtra etc).
However, was that always so?
Probably not. Right from the days of Mahabharata, down to Alexander, and even more clearly till the days of the Islamic Gazi-s, Elephant was an absolutely integral part of the North Indian wild habitat, and a unique and invincible war machine used as much by North Indian Kingdoms as by the Southern ones. Besides, Elephant of one army against the enemy army having elephants is useless - it is effective in war against the enemy that does not have elephants - and therefore it was even more useful in the North-west Indian frontiers.
Read the accounts of Taimur Lang, about his incursions in India. His army was rampaged over by the living tanks of that day, massively armoured Elephants - hundreds of them, trampling his army, and the enemy artillery attacking from behind that frontal cover. He has provided detailed accounts about how in the further battles, his army even dared to refuse him (who was dreaded by one and all) to go to the front for the fear of these beasts, and very interesting rumours doing the rounds in his camps about the nature of the animal. Of course until he found the Achilles' heals of the massive war elephants - its eyes. Eyes were the only part of the body that were not shielded much - and eyes are not a small target for a trained spearsman. A blinded and hurt Elephant is equally disasterous for both the sides.
Taimur Langda later captured the elephants of the enemy and sent contingents of these to all over the Muslim world for study by the war strategists - as far as Turky, Baghdad, Bukhara, Uzbegistan etc.
Century later, Baboor also wrote about Elephants being his big trouble in his wars, and after a few decades his son Humayun would be routed from the sultanate of Delhi by a relatively smaller army of Shershah Suri. Suri, who was ruling from the East had control over the forests of Bihar and East UP, and had a strategic advantage through the elephants coming from those forests.
In his first battle, Akbar's armies commanded by Bairam Khan also almost lost out to the armies of Hemchandra Vikramaditya - until again some elephant trouble on the Hemu's side, (besides Hemu's army was much smaller and lacked other resources).
However, I got digressed too far. Purpose of the post is to explore, what happenend to the Elephants in North India? Why do we associate today the Elephants to only South and North-East?
Answer lies at the doorsteps of Mugals - especially Akbar. Read the different narratives of Akbar's life: one thing would remain constant - his obsession about monopolizing the control over Elephant-resources all over the domains under his control.
At the end of every expansionist conquest, the debrief sent by his chief commanders to his courts would invariably include an inventory of howmany elephants were involved, howmany have been captured and so on. All such Elephants would be carefully accounted, tracked and collected. In the details of the booty that is sent to Akbar after the wars, invariably it includes the line item of the Elephants (apart from of course other strategic item: the women-folk of the defeated rival for addition to his harem.)
At one place there is an account of how surrender of the Elephants was one of the key demands he made from his rivals in the East (Battle of Jaunpur). Motives of his rapacious invasion of the domains of Rani Durgavati, with an entire might of his army, probably also includes that the powerful Queen commanded the forests of Madhya Pradesh which was naturally one of the richest habitat of Elephants.
At another place there is an account where his commanding officer fudges the actual number of Elephants captured in his report, and keeps a good chunk for his own personal disposal. Akbar comes to know of it and takes serious exception of it.
And if you analyze carefully, you would see a pattern. Akbar would monopolize and control the Elephant resources. And he would also destroy them - lest his rivals tap from these same resources after he returns back to the capital.
We must also look at how he hunted. His hunting was not just a pleasure-hunt, but a calculated enterprise. There is a horrifying account of how such Hunts were done using Turkish method called - kamaragaa. In Kamaragaa he would encircle a huge area (as large as 25-30 miles or more in radius) through his army, and the army would slowly move inwards towards the center of the seige. This way all the animals would get concentrated in a small circle - and that is when they begin the kill. There is a description of one such Kamaragg he did in the Punjab in 1567. His illustrious ancestors Taimur and distant one Changez Khan had also used the same method to capture or destroy the wild horse resources of the enemy.
This technique was an effective way to leave a defeated domain under control - destroy the horses and elephants and any other strategic resource of war so that the locals never get those resources to rise in revolt against you.
The secular historians can not see the pattern? They say Akbar tamed elephants as a great lover of the animal! But the fact that Elephants are all but vanished in the North today, while they still thrive in the South and North East, speaks for itself.
I refer again to the Census of Elephants in India 2005 by Project Elephant.
{Repeated: total population of Elephants in India is between 101,350 to 119,550. Regional breakup is 37-44K in NE; 12-15K in East; 36-42K in South; and a meagre 5-10K in the North and West India, and none in central india (MP, Maharashtra etc).}
Is it a mere coincidence that where Akbar's control had reached - elephant population is still dwinding four centuries down, whereas the regions where he could not really reach - still have a healthy Elephant population?
As per the Elephant Census of India 2005, total population of Elephants in India is between 101,350 to 119,550. Regional breakup is 37-44K in NE; 12-15K in East; 36-42K in South; and a meagre 5-10K in the North and West India, and none in central india (MP, Maharashtra etc).
However, was that always so?
Probably not. Right from the days of Mahabharata, down to Alexander, and even more clearly till the days of the Islamic Gazi-s, Elephant was an absolutely integral part of the North Indian wild habitat, and a unique and invincible war machine used as much by North Indian Kingdoms as by the Southern ones. Besides, Elephant of one army against the enemy army having elephants is useless - it is effective in war against the enemy that does not have elephants - and therefore it was even more useful in the North-west Indian frontiers.
Read the accounts of Taimur Lang, about his incursions in India. His army was rampaged over by the living tanks of that day, massively armoured Elephants - hundreds of them, trampling his army, and the enemy artillery attacking from behind that frontal cover. He has provided detailed accounts about how in the further battles, his army even dared to refuse him (who was dreaded by one and all) to go to the front for the fear of these beasts, and very interesting rumours doing the rounds in his camps about the nature of the animal. Of course until he found the Achilles' heals of the massive war elephants - its eyes. Eyes were the only part of the body that were not shielded much - and eyes are not a small target for a trained spearsman. A blinded and hurt Elephant is equally disasterous for both the sides.
Taimur Langda later captured the elephants of the enemy and sent contingents of these to all over the Muslim world for study by the war strategists - as far as Turky, Baghdad, Bukhara, Uzbegistan etc.
Century later, Baboor also wrote about Elephants being his big trouble in his wars, and after a few decades his son Humayun would be routed from the sultanate of Delhi by a relatively smaller army of Shershah Suri. Suri, who was ruling from the East had control over the forests of Bihar and East UP, and had a strategic advantage through the elephants coming from those forests.
In his first battle, Akbar's armies commanded by Bairam Khan also almost lost out to the armies of Hemchandra Vikramaditya - until again some elephant trouble on the Hemu's side, (besides Hemu's army was much smaller and lacked other resources).
However, I got digressed too far. Purpose of the post is to explore, what happenend to the Elephants in North India? Why do we associate today the Elephants to only South and North-East?
Answer lies at the doorsteps of Mugals - especially Akbar. Read the different narratives of Akbar's life: one thing would remain constant - his obsession about monopolizing the control over Elephant-resources all over the domains under his control.
At the end of every expansionist conquest, the debrief sent by his chief commanders to his courts would invariably include an inventory of howmany elephants were involved, howmany have been captured and so on. All such Elephants would be carefully accounted, tracked and collected. In the details of the booty that is sent to Akbar after the wars, invariably it includes the line item of the Elephants (apart from of course other strategic item: the women-folk of the defeated rival for addition to his harem.)
At one place there is an account of how surrender of the Elephants was one of the key demands he made from his rivals in the East (Battle of Jaunpur). Motives of his rapacious invasion of the domains of Rani Durgavati, with an entire might of his army, probably also includes that the powerful Queen commanded the forests of Madhya Pradesh which was naturally one of the richest habitat of Elephants.
At another place there is an account where his commanding officer fudges the actual number of Elephants captured in his report, and keeps a good chunk for his own personal disposal. Akbar comes to know of it and takes serious exception of it.
And if you analyze carefully, you would see a pattern. Akbar would monopolize and control the Elephant resources. And he would also destroy them - lest his rivals tap from these same resources after he returns back to the capital.
We must also look at how he hunted. His hunting was not just a pleasure-hunt, but a calculated enterprise. There is a horrifying account of how such Hunts were done using Turkish method called - kamaragaa. In Kamaragaa he would encircle a huge area (as large as 25-30 miles or more in radius) through his army, and the army would slowly move inwards towards the center of the seige. This way all the animals would get concentrated in a small circle - and that is when they begin the kill. There is a description of one such Kamaragg he did in the Punjab in 1567. His illustrious ancestors Taimur and distant one Changez Khan had also used the same method to capture or destroy the wild horse resources of the enemy.
This technique was an effective way to leave a defeated domain under control - destroy the horses and elephants and any other strategic resource of war so that the locals never get those resources to rise in revolt against you.
The secular historians can not see the pattern? They say Akbar tamed elephants as a great lover of the animal! But the fact that Elephants are all but vanished in the North today, while they still thrive in the South and North East, speaks for itself.
I refer again to the Census of Elephants in India 2005 by Project Elephant.
{Repeated: total population of Elephants in India is between 101,350 to 119,550. Regional breakup is 37-44K in NE; 12-15K in East; 36-42K in South; and a meagre 5-10K in the North and West India, and none in central india (MP, Maharashtra etc).}
Is it a mere coincidence that where Akbar's control had reached - elephant population is still dwinding four centuries down, whereas the regions where he could not really reach - still have a healthy Elephant population?