Further to my post a few days ago I have promising news. A lot of digging and some good early signs point to Leonardo DiCaprio's 3 million dollar grant to WWF having a real impact on tiger conservation here in Nepal. I'll have more on this later. Hemant gave a presentation to representatives from WWF Nepal, WWF UK and WWF Canada. As usual he did WildTiger proud.
I'm now in Pokhara after leaving Bardia a couple of days ago. It was with a heavy heart I journeyed on after a really wonderful send off from some of the community based anti-poaching (CBAPU) teams in the area. Community anti-poaching kicked off during the war years while the army had its hands full fighting the insurgents. Now the CBAPU teams are an integral part of the system in the Bardia region and beyond. There would not be a healthy sustainable tiger population without these committed people. I really love my involvement with these people, we share a common passion for conservation and I know they will be part of my life forever. The send off they gave me and the shared vision we spoke of really touched my heart.
Bardia really is the land of the tiger.
So in a couple of days it's back into the mighty Himalaya for the final part of my "Jungle to the Sky" year. More news soon from this region of the leopard, snow leopard and maybe the mountain tiger...
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