‘Get away,’ commanded the stern-faced inspector with a stick in one hand and a rifle in the other. ‘Get away, all of you, now!’ The baton-wielding constables cursed and waved their sticks to disband the crowd, but a few school children and teachers, as well as the stray dogs and the two Hindu priests, refused to go.

Govinda watched as the inspector loaded his bolt-action rifle, a leftover from the British army and the days of the Raj. His heart lurched. The elephant looked stately but sad. It raised its trunk proudly and flapped its ears. The speed and forcefulness of the swinging motion created a wave-like appearance across its ears. Then the elephant shook its head rapidly. It swayed its trunk and moved its pillarlike legs from side to side as if it was preparing to charge. It produced a distinctive rumble like water gurgling through a deep drain. Suddenly, the magnificent animal burst forth with more rumbling and trumpeting and tore into a group of teachers who were trying to keep their students away. Govinda noticed the elephant appeared to have a pink birthmark on its back and he wished that there was more he could do. Did it really have to end this way?

‘Leave it alone,’ he cried but the inspector took no notice. The Hindu priests protested and the school children screamed, pretending to be elephants and lifting their arms as if they were trunks. The teachers caught the students and pulled them out the way of the rampaging animal. An ever-increasing number of onlookers gathered.

The inspector shoved a cartridge into the rifle’s magazine and aimed straight at the elephant’s forehead. It was like aiming at a holy god – Boom! The dogs fled. The crows flew up and away. Govinda jumped. The elephant let out an appalling, furious sound and turned up its head with indignation. It charged wildly as it headed straight for the inspector. The endangered policeman shot again and hit the elephant near the trunk. Govinda felt the second shot between his shoulders as the elephant moaned in pain amidst the terrible sound of the gun.

‘It’s going to fall,’ the younger constable screamed. After a few seconds, the elephant’s hind legs collapsed beneath him and he landed on his belly. It seemed to Govinda that the ground trembled. The wound was not like on the silver screen. The blood leaked out.

Govinda stood near the elephant and wailed as his father, the police and the servants discussed what to do with the beast. The elephant breathed slowly now. Ohhh, Ahhh. Govinda almost felt the life coming out of the elephant’s lungs. When the last breath left the elephant’s body, its colour transformed and it lost the appearance of life.

Govinda gasped for breath whilst the students, staff and the residents from the lane and the nearby bazaar looked in horror at the scene unfolding before them.