In 2022, we were authorised by the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, to undertake the filming of a documentary on the elephants in Middle and North Andaman between October 2022 and March 2023. With the assistance of the Andaman Forest Department, we reached locations that had bever been filmed before and made the very first footage of the mysterious wild elephants.

a film by PHILIPPE GAUTIER & PRAJNA CHOWTA

documentary | 52 minutes | UHD 16/9 | 5.1 Surround Sound

SYNOPSIS

When in the 19th century, the European navigators began to explore the Andaman islands, there were none of the large mammals common to South Asia, including elephants.

Today, however, elephants are used in the extraction of timber and small herds live in the wild. How did they reach the islands and how were they able to regain new territories?

It is believed that in the Andamans, elephants swim in the sea from island to island. Is it a legend or a fact?

Could they have reached the Andamans during the last ice age 25,000 years ago, like the aboriginal tribes still living on the islands today? The film investigates the enigmatic history of the Andaman elephants.