Regarding a post I made earlier today on Facebook, I was happy to give the first pot of TIGER HONEY to Amrita, the mum of Hemanta. Many of you know that Amrita lost her husband in an elephant attack in late 2009, it was shortly (at the start of the most recent Year of the Tiger) after that WildTiger began some support for Hemant so he could return to Bardia, be with his mum and carve out the anti-poaching and social work he has done so ably these last years. Tiger Honey is effectively a social enterprise that will enable a core team to continue the work and we'll be presenting the biological fence concept to the Chief Warden in a few days.
Anti-poaching has reared its head here in a big way this last day or so, many of you know that a rhino was killed in Chitwan. I've never bought into "zero poaching" anyway, I'm seeing too many leopards die so species specific "achievements" are not really real to me. But there has been a blame game going on as well, that too is meaningless, we all have to unite. I spent many hours today trying to get a new type of jungle security camera operational and as we placed other cameras in our local buffer zone forest before night fall, I felt a sense of desperation, it has long been thought that rhino poaching would strike here again soon as things taper off in Africa. The rhino wars are full on in Assam in India, it was only a matter of time before Nepal was hit again.
So the rupees that people will pay for Tiger Honey will make a difference, equipment and patrolling can be resourced as well helping mitigate human-wildlife conflict so that the tragedy that many like Amrita went through can be avoided. Wildlife conservation is very much about people... and now some honey bees have an extra role...
