Cinestaan Curates: Kaliru is a hard-hitting documentary on the plight of pachyderms in India

Revered by many as the deity Ganesha in India, elephants are the largest mammals on land. However, the pachyderms are at the centre of a longstanding human-animal conflict that has become increasingly frequent due to the shrinkage of space for wild animals.

Directed by Jeswin Kingsly and Santhosh Krishnan, the illuminating documentary Kaliru, or elephant in Tamil, throws up some of the most pressing concerns regarding the giants in the wild.

The documentary begins by charting out the casualties on both sides as a result of the increasing clashes between wild elephants and humans. The fracturing of ancient migratory routes due to human habitation and deforestation has slowly but surely taken away the natural habitat of the elephants, forcing them to stray on to farmlands, destroying crops and threatening human lives.

In retaliation, cruel practices like electrocution and lighting firecrackers are adopted to chase away the pachyderms, sometimes even as a means of sadistic entertainment.

Kaliru tracks the history of these ancient, magnificent creatures, employing animation to highlight the background of the conflict and bring it to the present day where there are several potential points of hostility towards the animals.

Highlighting the position of elephants as a cultural and religious icon, the documentary film advocates the need for safe spaces for these giants. The hard-hitting film offers some positive examples of how the conflict between humans and elephants is being managed. Popular methods such as puppet shows have been adopted to create awareness about the mammals. While these methods have been effective, they are not foolproof and much remains to be done.

There are points when it becomes hard to watch Kaliru, like when we see humans scare and hunt the elephants mercilessly, even setting one on fire. It makes you wonder whether, as a species, we deserve beauty when we seem bent upon destroying it. As the narrator of the film, renowned conservationist Belinda Wright, says, “We owe it to them [the elephants] and the generations to come to secure their future.”