An experience for ages for women stranded deep inside forest

Three women recount terrifying night spent on rock surrounded by elephants in dense forest, rescued by search squad.

The experience of having spent an entire sleepless night atop an elevated rock while listening to the mayhem being created by elephants in the immediate vicinity would be something that the three women who lost their way in the dense forest of Attikalam in Anakkayam division of Kuttampuzha panchayat may have to recount countless times for the rest of their lives.

On Thursday afternoon, Parukutty, 64, Darly, 56, and Maya, 46, had gone in search of Maya’s cow, which, they thought, had lost its way. But instead of the cow, it was they who lost the way and got stranded deep inside the forest.

“It was so dark that I had to search with my hands to find the other two sitting right next me. We were able to sense the presence of elephants around the rock on which we sat. The only reassuring fact was that we had space to move to safety even if an elephant found us,” says Parukutty, who was the leader of sorts among the three and the one most familiar with the forest.

“At one point, we landed in front of a herd of elephants. But fortunately, we could hide behind a tree. We climbed on to the rock to avoid a similar situation and spent the entire night praying, ” says Darly.

Maya says that they could hear the elephants stepping on fallen tree branches and could feel their presence throughout the time they spent in the forest. “We realised that even if we find our way and start for our homes, we would not make it before nightfall and would compromise our safety.That’s why we decided to stay at a place safe from the elephants,” she says.

A Forest department official who was part of a search squad that eventually tracked them on Friday morning saysthe team had been in a 200m radius of the rock on which the women sat since the previous night. “We have been calling out their names and even put up a fire for them to spot us. In between, we burst a few firecrackers as well to scare away the elephants,” he adds.

Maya says that they could hear the squad and even the bursting of crackers but chose to remain silent. “Hunters often enter the forest. So, we did not want to take any chance,” she says.