Oscars 2023: Kartiki Gonsalves' The Elephant Whisperers inspired by this tribal couple

Kartiki Gonsalves' directorial The Elephant Whisperers won an Oscar this year in the Best Documentary Short Film category. The documentary is based on a tribal couple named Bomman and Bellie. As the film has created history at Oscars 2023, know all about the husband and wife duo, who inspired this 39 minutes long documentary. 

Bomman and Bellie live in the Mudumalai National Park in Tamil Nadu, India and belong to the forest community Kattunayakar Tribe. Bomman comes from a line of mahouts, who look after elephants. He is employed by Theppakadu Elephant Camp, which is Asia's first elephant camp. Bellie, on the other hand, had a dread of wild creatures at first because her previous husband had been killed by a tiger. She soon received a job taking care of baby elephants, and it was there that she met Bomman, with whom she later got married.

Adooption of Raghu and Ammu 

In July 2017, a male young elephant who was one and a half years old was saved by forest workers and brought to the reserve. Due to the wild dogs biting off his tail, the abandoned baby calf was in severe condition. He was also terribly undernourished and covered in numerous maggot wounds. The tiny calf was given to Bomman and Bellie, who took care of the baby elephant and named him Raghu. 

The trio soon adopted another female baby elephant and named her Ammu. Raghu was given to a different mahout when he grew older, and the couple and Ammu were devastated by his separation. Bomman and Bellie currently reside at the Theppakadu Elephant Camp with five-year-old Ammu, as shown in the documentary.