Land of the Tiger (1997–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - The Tiger's Domain - full transcript
'Greetings from India.
I'm Valmik Thapar,
and we're about to begin a journey
that you will never forget.
I'm kneeling down in Gir Forest
on the north western coast of India
looking at lions.
This is not Africa...
this is India...
and it's the last home
of the Asiatic lion in the world'
In centuries past,
lions like these ranged from India
to the shores of the Mediterranean.
But now they're confined
to this one tiny corner of Gujarat.
'The most remarkable thing
about the Asiatic lion
is that it has an incredible
relationship with man.
'It goes back 2000 years,
and the lion is tolerant and patient
of the presence of man.
You can sit on the ground
or walk on foot,
and the lion doesn't attack you.'
The lion may be Africa's pride,
but here in India we have something else.
If any animal symbolises the wildlife
of the Indian subcontinent,
it's the tiger.
For most of my life, these superb
animals have been my passion.
For years
I have tracked and watched them,
yet I still thrill to the splendour
of these magnificent beasts.
But tigers are just one of the creatures
that inhabit the vastness
of the subcontinent.
You could fit the whole of Europe
into it with room to spare.
From east to west it's further
than from London to Istanbul,
and it's just as big
from north to south.
'Let me take you
on a journey of a lifetime.
And what better way to travel than
on the back of this majestic elephant
We start our journey in the heart
of India's finest tiger country.
This is the true land
of Kipling's Jungle Book,
and the tiger still prowls
these superb forests.'
India was old
long before Kipling's time
Her first people lived in a land
full of wildlife,
and they wove it
into the very fabric of their lives
From the humid heart of India
we travel westˇ
to the dry deserts
of Gujarat and Rajasthan
Sunscorched grasslands
leap with blackbuckˇ
And the shimmering saltpans
of the Rann of Kutch
echo to the thundering hooves
of wild ass
From the hot desert we move north,
to the cold desert of the Himalayas
You'd think nothing could live in
the frozen embrace of these high peaks
but you'd be wrong
We'll soar with the lammergeyer
the full length of this
great range of mountains
These icy citadels
are home to tahr and ibex
Snowcock
And that ultimate symbol
of the high snowsˇ the snow leopard
Himalayan peoples long ago
learned to respect for the nature
of their mountain home
These mountains of the gods give birth
to India's most sacred rivers.
From its glacial beginning,
we'll follow the Ganges to the sea
The holy waters
attract waterfowl by the million.
And they're alive with fishˇ
food for both animals and people
Lush swamps along the river
heave with life,
among it some of the world's largest,
and rarest, animals
Here too we find the tiger.
The biggest tigers of all
stalk this watery home of wild buffalo,
rhino and barasingha
Rivers flow to the oceanˇ
an ocean full of surprises
Even in the sea,
our largest land animal seems at home
We'll ride the ocean currentsˇ
south to the coral reefs of Lakshadweep,
then east to the remote
and mysterious Andamans
And so to the journey's end..
the wet forests of Southern India
Assam and Sri Lanka..
a hidden, secret world of creatures
smallˇ and large
This is the haunt of silent
footed leopard and deadly snake
but wherever they live,
all these animals
have a desperate struggle for space
In India alone,
there are nearly a billion people.
So how do we still have room
for elephants?
Millions still worship Ganesh,
the elephant god,
and many of us
still have a deeply spiritual
relationship with the wild
The great religions
like Buddhism and Hinduism
absorbed ancient animist beliefs
into their very core.
It's not only cows
that are sacred here.
All sorts of other creatures are, too
Like monkeysˇliving embodiments
of the monkey god, Hanuman.
These worshippers of Hanuman
act out the more mischievous side
of the monkey nature.
Kandy in Sri Lanka
is Buddhist territory,
and here too,
elephants are honored and revered.
This is the annual Perahera festival
Over twelve days and nights,
nearly two hundred elephants take part
in torch lit processions,
and scores of dancers stamp and sway
to the elephants' steps.
At the heart of the festival,
the Buddha's sacred tooth relic
rides high on a shrine
on the back of the biggest tusker,
decorated and bejeweled
from head to toe.
City dwellers may never
see a wild elephant
but deep in rural India
many people still live
surrounded by wild animals ˇ
and old beliefs are very much alive
'I'm always delighted
to visit remote areas like Kanha
and spend time with people
like Mamlu Beiger.
He's a master of the forest,
and has many secrets in his mind
of this forest.
I'm in the heart of India,
Kipling country,
far away from the mad city which
is insulated from the natural world'
Dawn chases the night from the forest
Soon the mists will vanish
in the heat of the rising sun.
It's a new day in tiger country.
This part of the tigers' domain
is a mosaic of sal forest
and grassy meadows.
Here in the 1970s
people sacrificed their homes and land
to make space for the tiger.
These are the fabled forests
of Kipling's Mowgli
and the animals of the Jungle Book
are still here today.
There's the Jackal.
Herds of elegant spotted deer.
Langur monkey.
And the shadowy presence
of the villain of the storiesˇ
Sheer Khan, the tiger.
Out here in the dappled sal forest
I can spend endless happy hours
tracking the tiger.
To me, he is no villain
I've come to seek him out in one
of the richest pieces of tiger turf
in this land of the tigerˇ
Kanha National Park.
Close to the Seoni Hills,
on the high plateau of central India
Here I know I will find a tiger
'These are the moments I live for,
where time stands still.
For over twenty years,
the sheer beauty and power
of this magnificent creature
has completely mesmerised me'
This tigress has cubs concealed nearby
They stay hidden
till she calls them out
She killed this chital
earlier in the day
She'll eat all of it herself.
Her cubs are still too young
to mange meat.
They're totally dependent
on mother's milk,
but they take a keen interest
in everything she does.
The cubs grow fast,
and within weeks they'll be tackling
a carcass themselves.
But they'll be dependent
on their mother's hunting skills
for two full years.
Father's seldom play much part
in rearing the young.
Once her cubs are weaned,
the tigress will be so busy hunting
she'll have little time to relax.
In a family of jackals,
the job of watchdog
always falls to the adults.
If the coast's clear,
the pups can play.
Jackals are one of our smaller predators
so they could end up
on someone else's menu
A wolf could easily put an end
to the day of the jackal.
Our wolves look much leaner than
the shaggy animals of northern climes
but they're just as lethal.
Kipling wrote of wolves
with respect and admiration.
But that's an unusual view;
in most of India
they've been hunted almost to extinction
If the jackal's wary of the wolf,
it's also nervous
of another Jungle Book character
Bhaloo the bear.
He's a sloth bear.
He thrives in the heat
of the Indian summer.
He's a termite eater,
but no less dangerous for that.
The termite mounds
are baked hard as rock.
The bear has huge claws
to rip them open.
Mowgli's jungle friends
poured scorn on the jackal.
They thought it a cowardly creature
But not this one and its mate.
A jackal biting a bear's bottomˇ
In all my time in India,
I've never seen anything
like this before.
The jackals must be protecting
their pups.
Another kind of dog, the dhole
It's also known
as the Indian wild dog.
Like wolves and jackals,
dhole are social animalsˇ
and they can take quite large prey
Their packs are typically
a dozen to twenty strong,
though in Kanha
a pack of fifty has been seen.
A group that size could tree
a leopard or even chase a tiger,
but usually tiger and wild dog
avoid conflict.
Dhole are formidable hunters.
Their normal prey
would be something like this
Spotted deerˇ chital
But for now, all is calm
at the edge of the sal forest.
The deer can safely grazeˇ
partly because they have
a remarkable relationship
with another creature
the langur monkey
The two seem to seek out
each others company.
It's a special rapport
that profits both parties,
in more ways than one
The deer eat a broad range of vegetation
but they can only reach so far
up into the trees.
Monkeys, on the other hand,
are in their element up in the branches
You often see chital
gathering underneath the monkeys.
And this is why.
Fruits the monkeys dislodge or reject
fall to the ground..
And the deer can take their pick
But there's another,
more valuable side to the partnership
Sharp eyes up in the trees
and sensitive ears down below
give both parties a better chance
of detecting danger
And when danger is detected,
the whole forest resounds
with cries of alarm.
The tiger's lost the vital element
of surprise
Once it's been spotted
the hunt is over.
Perhaps it will have more luck
out in the meadows
On the forest edge,
the chital have their minds on sex
Rival stags strut and postureˇ
oblivious to the stripes in the grass
A tiger's charge
packs incredible power,
but it's short lived.
Surprise is essential.
Barely one hunt in twenty succeeds
A hungry tigress returns
to call her cubs out of hiding
In the first few months
the mother is ruthlessly protective.
Cubs are vulnerable to attacks
by jackals, wild dog, birds of prey
nearly everything that moves
Some are even killed
by territorial male tigers
Mortality is high
and the tigress' devotion to her cubs
is essential for their survival
A tigress can have a litter
every three years.
By the time
the next set of cubs arrives,
these youngsters
will be fending for themselves.
The females
share their mother's home range,
but the males will move away
to establish new territories
Hanuman langurs are sacred.
They take their name from the general
of a celestial monkey army.
But in the jungle book,
these were the Banderlogˇ
quarrelsome and undisciplined,
not creatures to revere
They may be quarrelsome,
but they are not undisciplined.
Langurs live in complex
and well ordered societies,
and youngsters learn the rules
over a long childhood
There's a strict order
of precedence within the troop.
Subordinates are kept in their place
Some troops consist of females
and young with a single male;
Others are male bands.
Each has its own range, and disputes
are frequent when troops meet
When the conflict's over,
the youngsters can play
Coming down to earth
is not just the end of the game.
It could be the end,
if the mother's not careful
In the late afternoon,
langurs and chital
move out into the open meadows
The animals are wary.
Out here there are no high
vantage points to watch from.
Tiger killing monkeyˇ
I've only seen it once before
The cubs are a little older now.
This time,
the prey is meant for them
Though they go through the motions,
they still can't quite get
to grips with it
Their mother leaves them to it.
They must work it out for themselves
This is the first time
they've had to deal with meat,
but in a few months
they'll be fully weaned
The wild dogs have a kill too,
but not to themselves
A scavenging wild boar.
With his sharp tusks,
he can even stand up to a tiger.
Two dogs on their own
are no match for him
Early morning, and the stage
is set for a show of splendour
The actors gather to call
their lines and flash their finery
In ancient belief, peacocks
are the prophets of the monsoon
Their ritual courtship takes place
just before the onset of the rains
Peahens are drab and brown.
Only cocks grow this magnificent train
This young male
can't make eyes at anyone.
He may be going through the motions,
but he lacks the equipment
Hindus revere peacocksˇ
they draw the chariot of Kartika,
god of war.
You often find them living alongside
people in country villages.
They're tolerated even though
they sometimes damage crops
Snakes are tolerated, too,
despite the risks.
Indeed they're far more sacred
than the peacock
The cobra's probably after rats
Peacocks are reputed to be snake killers
The feet that dance in courtship
can also stamp in battle
A smaller snake
might not be so lucky
Hidden underground,
a poisonous brood emerges
Tiny cobras,
each the spitting image of its mother.
For months,
she's guarded her buried treasure
Now her hungry vigil is at an end
Lethal within hours of hatching,
each tiny cobra
packs a killing punch of venom.
It's meant for prey like ratsˇ
but it's no less dangerous
to any human that crosses their path
Incredibly, some people actually
make a living catching snakes
It's a family business.
Children learn from their father
The snake is doing her best
to protect her young.
Her would-be captor
must treat her with respect.
In India twenty thousand people
die from snakebites each year
She's actually easier to deal with
outside the hole
The boys in the family
learn to handle snakes early in life.
Snake catching is an occupation
that's handed down from father to son
These days,
some of the catch goes to snake farm
to help produce anti-venom.
But some has another destination
This is the annual festival
of Nagapanchami in Maharashtra
It's the festival of snakes
There are more snakes here than people
In Hindu belief,
the great serpent Ananta
holds the earth in his coils.
Woman who want children
believe snakes can bring lifeˇ
they're symbols of fertility
These snakes will be released,
but their sanctity doesn't stop some people
killing tens of thousands for their skins
The old ways are changing.
Much of our wildlife
faces two great problemsˇ
disappearing wild places, and poaching
Tigers have become prime targets
for poachers,
their numbers tumbling to a mere
shadow of what they once were
'This gun could be the tiger's salvation
and this is not a gang of poachers,
but a team of scientists
preparing to radio collar a tiger.
It is through the tracking
of these collared animals
that new and vital information
will be discovered
on the tiger's territory,
its feeding habits
and its social behaviour'
We turn again to the elephant
to help us find the tiger
we want to collar
Being on elephant back
gives us a good vantage point.
And keeps us
more out of the tiger's reach
If you must catch a tiger by the tail
first tranquillise it.
Easier said than done
when your mount keeps moving
and you can't aim your gun properly
The dart does its work,
and 250 kilos of live tigress
sink to the ground
The drug won't last long
So the scientists must work fast
to fit the collar,
and collect all the information
they need
Radio collars
are invaluable tools for scientists.
The more information we can collect
by tracking animals like this tigress
the more we learn
of their survival needs
William Blake wrote of an 'immortal hand'
framing the tiger's fearful symmetry.
For these people,
the tiger himself is an immortal.
In a village on India's west coast
they prepare to celebrate their deity
Painting themselves to look like
tigers and dancing in devotion
brings great honour
on this most awe-inspiring
of the world's big cats
Back in Kanha,
our tiger cubs are older now.
In this wilderness of plenty,
their mother has kept them safe
But what of their future?
Will they make it
to the next century?
To me it seems natural
to revere the tiger.
It's the symbol of our wild heritage.
But not everyone shares my views.
As cultures change,
old beliefs that built fear and respect
for wild animals disappearˇ
and with them,
the tigers' domain vanishes
We must battle to save the tiger,
so that future generations
can witness wonders like this.
I'm Valmik Thapar,
and we're about to begin a journey
that you will never forget.
I'm kneeling down in Gir Forest
on the north western coast of India
looking at lions.
This is not Africa...
this is India...
and it's the last home
of the Asiatic lion in the world'
In centuries past,
lions like these ranged from India
to the shores of the Mediterranean.
But now they're confined
to this one tiny corner of Gujarat.
'The most remarkable thing
about the Asiatic lion
is that it has an incredible
relationship with man.
'It goes back 2000 years,
and the lion is tolerant and patient
of the presence of man.
You can sit on the ground
or walk on foot,
and the lion doesn't attack you.'
The lion may be Africa's pride,
but here in India we have something else.
If any animal symbolises the wildlife
of the Indian subcontinent,
it's the tiger.
For most of my life, these superb
animals have been my passion.
For years
I have tracked and watched them,
yet I still thrill to the splendour
of these magnificent beasts.
But tigers are just one of the creatures
that inhabit the vastness
of the subcontinent.
You could fit the whole of Europe
into it with room to spare.
From east to west it's further
than from London to Istanbul,
and it's just as big
from north to south.
'Let me take you
on a journey of a lifetime.
And what better way to travel than
on the back of this majestic elephant
We start our journey in the heart
of India's finest tiger country.
This is the true land
of Kipling's Jungle Book,
and the tiger still prowls
these superb forests.'
India was old
long before Kipling's time
Her first people lived in a land
full of wildlife,
and they wove it
into the very fabric of their lives
From the humid heart of India
we travel westˇ
to the dry deserts
of Gujarat and Rajasthan
Sunscorched grasslands
leap with blackbuckˇ
And the shimmering saltpans
of the Rann of Kutch
echo to the thundering hooves
of wild ass
From the hot desert we move north,
to the cold desert of the Himalayas
You'd think nothing could live in
the frozen embrace of these high peaks
but you'd be wrong
We'll soar with the lammergeyer
the full length of this
great range of mountains
These icy citadels
are home to tahr and ibex
Snowcock
And that ultimate symbol
of the high snowsˇ the snow leopard
Himalayan peoples long ago
learned to respect for the nature
of their mountain home
These mountains of the gods give birth
to India's most sacred rivers.
From its glacial beginning,
we'll follow the Ganges to the sea
The holy waters
attract waterfowl by the million.
And they're alive with fishˇ
food for both animals and people
Lush swamps along the river
heave with life,
among it some of the world's largest,
and rarest, animals
Here too we find the tiger.
The biggest tigers of all
stalk this watery home of wild buffalo,
rhino and barasingha
Rivers flow to the oceanˇ
an ocean full of surprises
Even in the sea,
our largest land animal seems at home
We'll ride the ocean currentsˇ
south to the coral reefs of Lakshadweep,
then east to the remote
and mysterious Andamans
And so to the journey's end..
the wet forests of Southern India
Assam and Sri Lanka..
a hidden, secret world of creatures
smallˇ and large
This is the haunt of silent
footed leopard and deadly snake
but wherever they live,
all these animals
have a desperate struggle for space
In India alone,
there are nearly a billion people.
So how do we still have room
for elephants?
Millions still worship Ganesh,
the elephant god,
and many of us
still have a deeply spiritual
relationship with the wild
The great religions
like Buddhism and Hinduism
absorbed ancient animist beliefs
into their very core.
It's not only cows
that are sacred here.
All sorts of other creatures are, too
Like monkeysˇliving embodiments
of the monkey god, Hanuman.
These worshippers of Hanuman
act out the more mischievous side
of the monkey nature.
Kandy in Sri Lanka
is Buddhist territory,
and here too,
elephants are honored and revered.
This is the annual Perahera festival
Over twelve days and nights,
nearly two hundred elephants take part
in torch lit processions,
and scores of dancers stamp and sway
to the elephants' steps.
At the heart of the festival,
the Buddha's sacred tooth relic
rides high on a shrine
on the back of the biggest tusker,
decorated and bejeweled
from head to toe.
City dwellers may never
see a wild elephant
but deep in rural India
many people still live
surrounded by wild animals ˇ
and old beliefs are very much alive
'I'm always delighted
to visit remote areas like Kanha
and spend time with people
like Mamlu Beiger.
He's a master of the forest,
and has many secrets in his mind
of this forest.
I'm in the heart of India,
Kipling country,
far away from the mad city which
is insulated from the natural world'
Dawn chases the night from the forest
Soon the mists will vanish
in the heat of the rising sun.
It's a new day in tiger country.
This part of the tigers' domain
is a mosaic of sal forest
and grassy meadows.
Here in the 1970s
people sacrificed their homes and land
to make space for the tiger.
These are the fabled forests
of Kipling's Mowgli
and the animals of the Jungle Book
are still here today.
There's the Jackal.
Herds of elegant spotted deer.
Langur monkey.
And the shadowy presence
of the villain of the storiesˇ
Sheer Khan, the tiger.
Out here in the dappled sal forest
I can spend endless happy hours
tracking the tiger.
To me, he is no villain
I've come to seek him out in one
of the richest pieces of tiger turf
in this land of the tigerˇ
Kanha National Park.
Close to the Seoni Hills,
on the high plateau of central India
Here I know I will find a tiger
'These are the moments I live for,
where time stands still.
For over twenty years,
the sheer beauty and power
of this magnificent creature
has completely mesmerised me'
This tigress has cubs concealed nearby
They stay hidden
till she calls them out
She killed this chital
earlier in the day
She'll eat all of it herself.
Her cubs are still too young
to mange meat.
They're totally dependent
on mother's milk,
but they take a keen interest
in everything she does.
The cubs grow fast,
and within weeks they'll be tackling
a carcass themselves.
But they'll be dependent
on their mother's hunting skills
for two full years.
Father's seldom play much part
in rearing the young.
Once her cubs are weaned,
the tigress will be so busy hunting
she'll have little time to relax.
In a family of jackals,
the job of watchdog
always falls to the adults.
If the coast's clear,
the pups can play.
Jackals are one of our smaller predators
so they could end up
on someone else's menu
A wolf could easily put an end
to the day of the jackal.
Our wolves look much leaner than
the shaggy animals of northern climes
but they're just as lethal.
Kipling wrote of wolves
with respect and admiration.
But that's an unusual view;
in most of India
they've been hunted almost to extinction
If the jackal's wary of the wolf,
it's also nervous
of another Jungle Book character
Bhaloo the bear.
He's a sloth bear.
He thrives in the heat
of the Indian summer.
He's a termite eater,
but no less dangerous for that.
The termite mounds
are baked hard as rock.
The bear has huge claws
to rip them open.
Mowgli's jungle friends
poured scorn on the jackal.
They thought it a cowardly creature
But not this one and its mate.
A jackal biting a bear's bottomˇ
In all my time in India,
I've never seen anything
like this before.
The jackals must be protecting
their pups.
Another kind of dog, the dhole
It's also known
as the Indian wild dog.
Like wolves and jackals,
dhole are social animalsˇ
and they can take quite large prey
Their packs are typically
a dozen to twenty strong,
though in Kanha
a pack of fifty has been seen.
A group that size could tree
a leopard or even chase a tiger,
but usually tiger and wild dog
avoid conflict.
Dhole are formidable hunters.
Their normal prey
would be something like this
Spotted deerˇ chital
But for now, all is calm
at the edge of the sal forest.
The deer can safely grazeˇ
partly because they have
a remarkable relationship
with another creature
the langur monkey
The two seem to seek out
each others company.
It's a special rapport
that profits both parties,
in more ways than one
The deer eat a broad range of vegetation
but they can only reach so far
up into the trees.
Monkeys, on the other hand,
are in their element up in the branches
You often see chital
gathering underneath the monkeys.
And this is why.
Fruits the monkeys dislodge or reject
fall to the ground..
And the deer can take their pick
But there's another,
more valuable side to the partnership
Sharp eyes up in the trees
and sensitive ears down below
give both parties a better chance
of detecting danger
And when danger is detected,
the whole forest resounds
with cries of alarm.
The tiger's lost the vital element
of surprise
Once it's been spotted
the hunt is over.
Perhaps it will have more luck
out in the meadows
On the forest edge,
the chital have their minds on sex
Rival stags strut and postureˇ
oblivious to the stripes in the grass
A tiger's charge
packs incredible power,
but it's short lived.
Surprise is essential.
Barely one hunt in twenty succeeds
A hungry tigress returns
to call her cubs out of hiding
In the first few months
the mother is ruthlessly protective.
Cubs are vulnerable to attacks
by jackals, wild dog, birds of prey
nearly everything that moves
Some are even killed
by territorial male tigers
Mortality is high
and the tigress' devotion to her cubs
is essential for their survival
A tigress can have a litter
every three years.
By the time
the next set of cubs arrives,
these youngsters
will be fending for themselves.
The females
share their mother's home range,
but the males will move away
to establish new territories
Hanuman langurs are sacred.
They take their name from the general
of a celestial monkey army.
But in the jungle book,
these were the Banderlogˇ
quarrelsome and undisciplined,
not creatures to revere
They may be quarrelsome,
but they are not undisciplined.
Langurs live in complex
and well ordered societies,
and youngsters learn the rules
over a long childhood
There's a strict order
of precedence within the troop.
Subordinates are kept in their place
Some troops consist of females
and young with a single male;
Others are male bands.
Each has its own range, and disputes
are frequent when troops meet
When the conflict's over,
the youngsters can play
Coming down to earth
is not just the end of the game.
It could be the end,
if the mother's not careful
In the late afternoon,
langurs and chital
move out into the open meadows
The animals are wary.
Out here there are no high
vantage points to watch from.
Tiger killing monkeyˇ
I've only seen it once before
The cubs are a little older now.
This time,
the prey is meant for them
Though they go through the motions,
they still can't quite get
to grips with it
Their mother leaves them to it.
They must work it out for themselves
This is the first time
they've had to deal with meat,
but in a few months
they'll be fully weaned
The wild dogs have a kill too,
but not to themselves
A scavenging wild boar.
With his sharp tusks,
he can even stand up to a tiger.
Two dogs on their own
are no match for him
Early morning, and the stage
is set for a show of splendour
The actors gather to call
their lines and flash their finery
In ancient belief, peacocks
are the prophets of the monsoon
Their ritual courtship takes place
just before the onset of the rains
Peahens are drab and brown.
Only cocks grow this magnificent train
This young male
can't make eyes at anyone.
He may be going through the motions,
but he lacks the equipment
Hindus revere peacocksˇ
they draw the chariot of Kartika,
god of war.
You often find them living alongside
people in country villages.
They're tolerated even though
they sometimes damage crops
Snakes are tolerated, too,
despite the risks.
Indeed they're far more sacred
than the peacock
The cobra's probably after rats
Peacocks are reputed to be snake killers
The feet that dance in courtship
can also stamp in battle
A smaller snake
might not be so lucky
Hidden underground,
a poisonous brood emerges
Tiny cobras,
each the spitting image of its mother.
For months,
she's guarded her buried treasure
Now her hungry vigil is at an end
Lethal within hours of hatching,
each tiny cobra
packs a killing punch of venom.
It's meant for prey like ratsˇ
but it's no less dangerous
to any human that crosses their path
Incredibly, some people actually
make a living catching snakes
It's a family business.
Children learn from their father
The snake is doing her best
to protect her young.
Her would-be captor
must treat her with respect.
In India twenty thousand people
die from snakebites each year
She's actually easier to deal with
outside the hole
The boys in the family
learn to handle snakes early in life.
Snake catching is an occupation
that's handed down from father to son
These days,
some of the catch goes to snake farm
to help produce anti-venom.
But some has another destination
This is the annual festival
of Nagapanchami in Maharashtra
It's the festival of snakes
There are more snakes here than people
In Hindu belief,
the great serpent Ananta
holds the earth in his coils.
Woman who want children
believe snakes can bring lifeˇ
they're symbols of fertility
These snakes will be released,
but their sanctity doesn't stop some people
killing tens of thousands for their skins
The old ways are changing.
Much of our wildlife
faces two great problemsˇ
disappearing wild places, and poaching
Tigers have become prime targets
for poachers,
their numbers tumbling to a mere
shadow of what they once were
'This gun could be the tiger's salvation
and this is not a gang of poachers,
but a team of scientists
preparing to radio collar a tiger.
It is through the tracking
of these collared animals
that new and vital information
will be discovered
on the tiger's territory,
its feeding habits
and its social behaviour'
We turn again to the elephant
to help us find the tiger
we want to collar
Being on elephant back
gives us a good vantage point.
And keeps us
more out of the tiger's reach
If you must catch a tiger by the tail
first tranquillise it.
Easier said than done
when your mount keeps moving
and you can't aim your gun properly
The dart does its work,
and 250 kilos of live tigress
sink to the ground
The drug won't last long
So the scientists must work fast
to fit the collar,
and collect all the information
they need
Radio collars
are invaluable tools for scientists.
The more information we can collect
by tracking animals like this tigress
the more we learn
of their survival needs
William Blake wrote of an 'immortal hand'
framing the tiger's fearful symmetry.
For these people,
the tiger himself is an immortal.
In a village on India's west coast
they prepare to celebrate their deity
Painting themselves to look like
tigers and dancing in devotion
brings great honour
on this most awe-inspiring
of the world's big cats
Back in Kanha,
our tiger cubs are older now.
In this wilderness of plenty,
their mother has kept them safe
But what of their future?
Will they make it
to the next century?
To me it seems natural
to revere the tiger.
It's the symbol of our wild heritage.
But not everyone shares my views.
As cultures change,
old beliefs that built fear and respect
for wild animals disappearˇ
and with them,
the tigers' domain vanishes
We must battle to save the tiger,
so that future generations
can witness wonders like this.