The Great Migration

Seven life-size elephants have gathered on Alnoba’s Big Top Field. They are members of The Great Elephant Migration, a traveling herd created to share a message of coexistence: that people and wildlife can flourish when we learn to make space for one another. Each sculpture portrays a real wild elephant from the Nilgiri Hills of Southern India, capturing its individual shape, posture and personality.

The elephants were handcrafted by the Real Elephant Collective, a community of Indigenous artisans from the Bettakurumba, Paniya, Kattunayakan and Soliga peoples who live alongside the region’s wild herds. Their intimate knowledge of these animals can be seen in every carefully observed curve and gesture. Together, the sculptures celebrate generations of knowledge rooted in respect for the natural world.

The herd is made from Lantana camara, a fast-growing invasive plant that has overtaken large areas of India’s forests, crowding out native vegetation and diminishing food sources for wildlife. The dried lantana is removed from elephant habitat and woven around anatomically accurate steel frames. In transforming a destructive plant into something powerful and beautiful, The Great Migration embodies restoration itself. Here at Alnoba, the seven elephants remind us that we are not separate from nature, but part of a larger living community, and that our shared future depends upon our ability to coexist.