Arun Nangla: The elephant in the room | MONOVISIONS - Black & White Photography Magazine

MonoVisions Black & White Photo Contest 2025

Asian Elephant is endangered. There are 350.000 African Elephants in the wild. Asian elephants in the wild is less than 50.000. The deadly threat for Asian Elephants is habitat loss. Forests are shrinking due to human activities like intensive plantation, logging and overgrowing human population. This conflict between human and elephant is a no-win situation. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. All causes of risk for the elephant are emergencies for the environment and show dramatic contradictions in the society.
Cities have taken over forests. People keep elephants in the city for their own profit but also just as status symbol or pet. But a city like Delhi is now unliveable for every living creature.
Hira is a 35 years old elephant born and raised in New Delhi. Hira is used for events and weddings, but mainly Hira is part of the family. The biggest possible pet. The photos are from November 2017 during the “Great Smog”. Pollution in Delhi reached the most dangerous peaks ever. Stubble burning, factories and more than 10millions vehicles are the primary causes of this situation. Fine pollutants reached over 11 times the World Health Organization’s safe limit. Schools were shut for days and people recommended to stay home.
Despite being considered by Hindu religion a holy river, Yamuna river is the most polluted river in India, among the five most polluted in the world. This is where Hira bathes every day.
As far as the authorities know there are seven domesticated elephants in Delhi that should be confiscated and shifted to wildlife sanctuaries. Hira’s owners requested instead a land outside the city to not be separated from the elephant who never lived in the wild. They are planning to move Hira to another state, but his destiny is not yet clear.

Website: www.arunnangla.com

‘The elephant in the room’ was the Black & White Photojournalism Series of the Year 2nd place Winner in the MonoVisions Photography Awards 2018.