The image is from a couple of weeks ago when I was in Bardia discussing the proposed Rescue and Rewilding Centre with Chief Warden Ram Chandra Kadel and Assistant Chief Warden Ashok Bhandari who is sitting next to WildTiger's Hemanta. The words Ashok said to me regarding the urgency of the situation are still echoing...
Back in the mountains there was an hour about a week ago when I really began to wonder about it all. I was sitting on a rock in pouring rain starting to get cold. I still had to do a decent climb to get out of a valley to get onto a ridge and then drop down to the village. I was physically and mentally exhausted, I felt quite alone, I was thinking about the logistical and financial struggle, I was wondering if I had the strength to carry on.
Asa, the Leopard of Hope, was sitting about two metres away. He was gazing into the distance. I looked at him trying to figure out his thoughts as I had seen him be this way two days before in similar circumstances. Then we had been listening to the relentless chop, chop, chop as jungle wood was being converted into construction timber, probably for accommodation for trekkers. Many tree felling and milling permits had been issued, the area that the young leopard and I had got to know well was disturbed.
I don't have any issues with the men doing the work, they are low caste labourers who are highly skilled, strong and able to work in bloody tough conditions. They are simply doing a job at the behest of others, symptoms of tourism. I have got to know these men and I spend a lot of time reassuring them that they will be safe as although Asa sees them, he will not attack, he will hide and observe.
Asa does this well. He has always kept right away from people when he has had the choice to do so. Many times I have watched the leopard tense up, even turn around on our trail so as to completely avoid human contact.
Yet of course conflict between leopards and humans does occur. Both die. It is an uneasy relationship born of many issues, many complications. There is still so much to learn as to how we can share habitat and reduce conflict. It can never be completely harmonious but it can improve.
It is that thought which makes me rise from the rock and start the trek up the slippery path. I lead Asa to a safe place, a food drop I have made on the grid. At the lowest moments I think of people like George Schaller and his incredible work creating safe habitat for wildlife, I think of the big cat rewilding pioneer Billy Arjan Singh and I think of Dian Fossey and how she almost single handed saved a species, the mountain gorilla. I know they all went through huge hardships (George is still alive and still, in his eighties, making a difference) but that their power of belief kept them going. Their strength makes me feel very humble.
My muscles and mind were sore but suddenly the path wasn't quite so steep...
I will be in the jungle each day for the next fifty, making sure that both the leopard and the woodcutters are safe, avoiding each other. At night I'll continue to pursue the vision of the Rescue and Rewilding Centre. Support is needed, urgently, a lot of it and together with Cecile Michiardi, who has worked tirelessly, we'll put in place the mechanisms needed to find those who are true supporters of the concept, of wildlife conservation. It just doesn't stop, there are no days off, it doesn't go smoothly (far, far from it), it just goes... and keeps going when you truly believe in something...
Idealism can be lonely... however that doesn't matter when you know something is right...
