I'm sitting here writing this with a bemused expression, one of those shaking head in wonder (see Asa's expression in the image, he often looked in wonder) of the madness moments. My son wrote to me saying that maybe I was the only man on the planet brave enough to try and build a rewilding centre in an area of the country which is in political and social strife, not far from where just a couple of weeks ago several people were slaughtered.
I replaced the word brave with crazy to test my son's reaction. He just replied with a haha. Thanks mate. I think back to my mountaineering days and those challenges are babyish in comparison but am reminded of people's reactions, the fine line of perspective between brave and crazy.
India are deploying troops on the border in response to the unrest on the Terai and their own upcoming election in Bihar, a volatile place itself. There are so many elements to this situation and I have to put the lessons learnt from the rewilding of the leopard Asa to good use insomuch the physical, mental and financial effort involved.
So at this stage it's step by step. Asis has been giving me positive updates on the progress of leopard cubs Tika and Ram, we'll have dedicated online pages to that soon. In many ways just knowing that this thing can work and we have two more big cats becoming just that, keeps me going, I know it's worth it. There's also been some remarkable emails from people sharing their experiences of trying to facilitate projects in developing countries... although Nepal doesn't even have that status, it is in the category of least developed.
Once again my thanks to those following and supporting, I guess you are in a tiny minority who understand the motives, ethical considerations and effort behind this thing. I think my reference in recent days to the haka (see Facebook posts) has been a way of reaching out to something strong and positive.
Let's see what today brings... a little more crazy I suspect...
