'There's an elephant in the flowerbed again!'

What's it like to live among elephants, to know that at any moment you might find yourself face to face with something so awe-inspiring - and so dangerous?

My family and I have lived on the edge of the Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary in the Nilgiri mountains, south India, for over three decades now. The children grew up here. Yet the thrill of knowing there's an elephant in the garden is a feeling we all still savour. We cherish our elephant memories and can't ever seem to become blasi(C) about them.

Our elephant adventures began in 1984 when, with our one-year-old daughter, my husband and I crossed the jungle in a dilapidated jeep, sticking behind a lorry for comfort and company. The herds of elephants standing like sentinels on either side of the Bandipur-Mudumalai forest highway had us frantically praying for our safety. Mostly, one elephant, the matriarch, would trumpet loudly, warning us off, especially if there were young calves with the herd. Then she would angrily paw the ground as a prelude to charging. We would race away before she could carry out her threat.