Within or Outside the Boundaries: Exploring the Intricacies of Human-Elephant Relationship in Tania James’s Novel The Tusk That Did the Damage

Despite the fact that Human geography has long studied landscapes in relation to human identity, experience, intentions, and relationships, a change in the epistemology of spatial discourse has led to a shift in how landscapes are now defined in terms of the presence of human-animal relationships in particular locations. This study comprehends the subtle nuances of human-animal relationships by re-conceptualizing the understanding of spaces and places and negotiates the question of how the fictional elephant Gravedigger becomes known for reorganizing spaces. Based on the semiotics of literary geography and animal geography this research territorializes elephant-human geographies, delineates elephant agency inside the "animal spaces," and examines how the elephants' lived experiences create the "beastly places" outside the "animal spaces" in the novel The Tusk That Did the Damage (Citation2015). It further depicts animals as powerful subjects in the wild spaces and attempts to understand how boundary breaching occurs.