An Elephant In Absolute Darkness

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I come from a small town that started developing as an industrial hub ten years back.Big industries have acquired huge swathes of land here.Now as you enter the town,you find the whole area punctuated by big alluminium and iron factories that seem to have popped up overnight. Ten years ago there were dense jungles in this area that were home to wild animals like elephants,leopards,hyaenas,jackals and foxes.Now the habitats of these animals are destroyed by factories.Elephants and leopards have to enter into villages located near the jungles in search of food. In winter herds of elephants stray into villages at night in search of food.They destroy paddy fields and huts of farmers. The poor farmers try to drive them out of village by beating drums and burning crackers.At first they succeeded to scare away the elephants, but gradually the beasts got used to sounds of drums and blasts of crackers. I remember a poor carpenter from a village who we had hired to make some tables.He would turn up every morning, work till afternoon and then leave hurriedly to his village.We insisted him to work for one hour more,but he flatly refused saying ,"Sorry,Sir, I can't.If I leave for village late,it would be dark and that's the time when the elephants are near my village." One morning he did not come.We thought he was ill.But he turned up next morning and then we came to know what had happened with him. That afternoon he had left for his village by his bike,but the bike went out of order before crossing the town.He got it repaired and headed towards his village hurriedly.But it was too late for him and absolute darkness had enveloped the jungle when he reached there. And then while crossing the jungle his bike once again went out of order.He hid the bike in a bush and proceeded ahead at a fast pace towards his village. But suddenly he stopped.He suddenly realised he was standing hardly two feet away from an elephant.A black elephant standing in pitch black darkness. "I don't know the elephant saw me or not ,but I quickly recovered myself from the shock and retraced my feet.I started running back and then I heard heavy foot steps approaching me.I ran as fast as I could and only God knows how I reached the main road."He told us. It was a close shave for the poor carpenter. Imagine,what if he had not sensed he was about to collide with a black elephant standing in absolute darkness.