BY KAREN BOSSICK

Ketchum author and photographer Kim Frank will release her new non-fiction book, “Elephants in the Hourglass: A Journey of Reckoning and Hope Along the Himalaya” on Tuesday, Jan. 7.

The book, published by Pegasus Books, is a memoir and adventure-filled tale about Frank’s quest for the truth about endangered Asian elephants and their evolving relationships with humans.

“The foundation of this book is that if you want to fix something, you have to act. That can mean anything from a small personal step to a giant leap into the unknown. Telling stories that have the power to make a difference is my deepest motivation. It makes facing my fears worth the risk. I hope (readers) find something in these stories that speak to (them),” said Frank, who is passionate about conservation and exploration.

Kim Frank poses with mahouts and elephant at Dhubjora.PHOTO: Jody MacDonald

Frank was a stay-at-home mom and fiction writer before she became drawn to the plight of the elephants in northeastern India. She set out to the Himalaya intending to write a National Geographic-style story and came face to face with an experience that would change her life.

The story, Frank says, begins in the “Chicken Neck of India” where wild Asian elephants once roamed freely through dense forests and jungles, where local people lived in harmony with nature respecting elephants as gods and where monsoon season was celebrated for the abundance of rainfall necessary for living things to survive.

But things changed as new tea plantations, highways, train tracks and human settlements began blocking elephants’ natural migration patterns. In 2017 an 18-kilometer electric fence was erected on the border to keep elephants out of Nepal, and that resulted in the need for an increased military presence to protect human inhabitants as elephants pooled in villages with the remaining forests no longer able to provide enough food for the demands.

Wild Asian elephants number fewer than 50,000—a 50 percent decline over the last three generations. a hundred elephants die in this country each year due to illegal electric fencing, collisions with trains on the “killer track,” and other obstacles.

A matriarch blocks the forest road inside a reserve. PHOTO: Avijan Saha

Conversely, wild elephants kill about 400 people in India annually. Elephants also eat farmers’ crops and destroy houses in their ongoing search for food.

There’s hope, though, as tea estate owners have become “Elephant Friendly,” creating safe elephant passages. There are also new laws regarding train speed, alternative fencing and research being done to track elephant movement to decrease conflicts.

Kim Frank’s book is filled with unforgettable characters as it paints a picture of one of the most sensitive intelligent creatures on the planet in a world of displaced habitats, exploding population growth, and climate change.

It also is a story of Frank’s own personal healing, letting go of control, self-doubts and her struggle to balance her calling as a writer abroad with her love for her daughters in Idaho.

This home was destroyed by an elephant who left only the front door standing. PHOTO: Kim Frank

“Sharp observations fill this powerful book that explains that Asian elephants, including those in the eastern Himalayas, are moving toward extinction at an exponential rate. ‘Elephants in the Hourglass’ is a captivating environmental memoir that addresses global issues related to technology, development, culture change, and gender roles in addition to examining the decline of an endangered species,” noted Foreward Reviews.

The book inspired Frank to film a documentary titled “Where the Forest Roars,” which she hopes to premiere in Fall 2025. And she’s made a presentation titled “Asian Elephants from Conflict to Coexistence” in such venues as New York City, Norway, Seattle and California.

Frank also has worked on the book “Born to Ice” with National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen, set in the fjords of Norway far above the Arctic Circle. Also, “Amaze,” a book of nature photography with SeaLegacy founder Cristina Mittermeier.

She is a Fellow of The Explorers Club and the Royal Geographical Society. She earned a Master of Fine Arts from the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and a Master of Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice.

Her fictional stories include “The Redshaw Sea Star,” “our Red Thread” and “Jersey Shore.”