.

Fort Kochi, Kerala India - An Elephant At Work Rs 3600 per Day. The Mahout's Assistant is Cheeky Enough To Ask For Money From A Poor Photographer !!! ;-), originally uploaded by ezee 123 aka Anoop Negi.

This is Fort Kochi in Kerala very close to the new bridge that joins that island to the Willingdon Island due north and east.

Close to the bridge is an area full of saw mills on the shore. One of the days I saw an elephant engaged by a saw mill owner to re arrange his stack of wooden tree trunks on the roadside.

Photographing elephants is a tricky business as the dark hide does not light up too well in a photograph and you have to be wary and careful to not get the elephant irritated. One has seen in Kerala and Assam, enough damage caused by elephants to be wary and watchful of them and maintain a safe distance,

It is a marvelous sight to see the effortless ease with which the elephant goes about picking up the tree trunks and stacking them. What really is amazing however is the grace and finesse with which the great animal does the work. Delicate and heavy, both at once.