Land of the Tiger (1997–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - Monsoon Forest - full transcript
Great swirls of mist
drift above Indian forest
a forest that owes its life
to the onslaught of the monsoon
With Natrajan, an expert trekker
I've come here to look for
a very special animal
It's shy and elusive
Our search takes us
deep into the heart of the forest
This is a secret hidden world
you never know
what might be watching you
Hoping for an answer,
Natrajan mimics a quarry's call
And there they are,
the lions of the trees,
the lion-tail macaques
You can see how they got their name,
not just a tufted tail,
but a lion's mane too
They are one of the rarest of all monkeys
They are found only here
in southern India's monsoon forests
Unlike other macaques
they can't digest leaves
They live on ripe fruit,
seeds and insects,
with occasional bird's egg,
nestling or squirrel
that limits them
to the finest tracts of wet forest
where food is available all year round
There are 5000 kinds of flowering plant
in these forests,
but even so, fruit like this spiny durian
is always widely scattered
So it takes a lot of forest
to support a few lion-tail macaques
They live in small mobile groups
just 1 male with several females and young
much smaller than the troupes
of other macaques
Females don't give birth
until they are more than 6 years old
They only have an infant every 3 years
and perhaps only 4 in a lifetime
They are probably less than
4000 lion-tail macaques left
Over the last 2 centuries,
the wet forest of the Western Ghats
has been decimated by human populations
cut for firewood, cleared for plantations,
exploited by dams and hunted
The little forest that remains
is protected,
but it may be too late for the macaques
Wet forest once covered
almost the entire subcontinent,
a green pathway for the spread
of animals from other lands
But changes in climate and more recently
human influence now restricted
to Sri Lanka, the Western Ghats
and northeast India
When an island India
drifted across an ancient sea
to collide with Asia,
the first impact was in the east
Gibbons are one legacy of that collision
India's only ape came to us
from southeast Asia,
though it reached no further
than the northeast
They're sometimes called singing apes
Every morning,
the forest echoes to their calls
They are the acrobats of the trees,
a gibbon in full swing is the fastest
flightless animal in the canopy
Life for the gibbon
centers round the sunlit treetops
Forty metres down,
there's another world
In the shadowy depths of the forest floor,
there's not much vegetation,
so it's easy walking for elephants
When rainforest stretched unbroken,
across the length and breadth of India,
elephants spread
throughout the subcontinent
Today, the greatest numbers
are in the northeast and
the forests of the Western Ghats
The dry fragmented forests in between
support only scattered remnants
A king cobra basks in the sun
its bite could kill a baby elephant
This venomous reptile
reached India by the same
northeast passage as the gibbons
but it spread right to the southern
tip of the country
King cobras are the largest
of our poisonous snakes,
they can grow to five metres
big enough to stand up
and look you in the eye
Cobras kill thousands of people every year
yet they are one of our
most venerated animals
Naga, the snake god is rivaled in esteem
only by lord Ganesh, the elephant god
For us, much of the natural world is divine
These wet monsoon forests
are a paradise for creatures
that slither, crawl and hop
Of India's 205 species of amphibian,
120 are found in the forests
of Western Ghats
and new ones are still waiting
to be discovered
These flying frogs,
another eastern import
You never know
what you are going to find here
Water is the key to the infinite variety
of these forests
Moisture brings stability,
and the chance to specialize into
ever narrow niches and ways of life
This can lead to an arms race,
colors, more startling or subtle
to warn, camouflage and deceive
But even the best camouflage
doesn't always work
With the deadly aim of an archer,
a chameleon shoots its victim
with sticky tongue
If the slow and deliberate chameleon
is the tortoise on the trees
then this is the hare,
but it's a hare with the difference
Flying lizards,
the males flash to attract females
or perhaps intimidate other males
They can glide as much as 35 metres
Incredible, but the slow and steady chameleon
is just as remarkable in its own way
It will take a chameleon all day
to cover that distance
At this phase,
it won't frighten its quarry
Armed with only a cool head
and a firm grip,
another insect hunter pursues his prey
Smothering leaves are his only weapon
in this dangerous hunt
No high-tech climbing equipment,
just wooden pegs,
it makes me go weak at the knees
just to watch
A single slip could kill
It's 40 metres to the ground
This is an ancient skill,
handed down from father to son,
over countless generations
Forest people like this
were among the first wave of immigrants
to populate the subcontinent
That's what he is after,
a wild bees' nest
The smoke will help
to stupefy the bees
And this is what it's all about - honey
He only takes part of the honey comb,
leaving the rest for the bees
If he doesn't destroy the colony,
he can come back again and again
For the people of the forest,
this is liquid gold
Great pied hornbills,
they are as big as swans
These magnificent birds are fruit eaters
They relish figs
which make up most of their diet
Malabar great hornbills found
only in this south Indian forests
They are much smaller than the great pied
and they find the figs more of a challenge
Fig trees fruit throughout the year,
so there's always one fruiting
somewhere in the forest
That makes them the most vital of all trees,
a mecca for wildlife
Blossom-headed parakeets
green pigeons
tree pies
and exquisite fairy bluebirds
and not just birds, mammals too
There's a greater density of fig trees
in these forests
than anywhere else in the subcontinent
So many creatures depend on them
for survival
Fig trees are truly trees of life
Nilgiri langurs, unique to these forests
They are mainly leaf-eaters,
but they take figs too
And Malabar giant squirrels
they are related to
the Malayan giant squirrel
that spread into India
from the northeast
They've been isolated here so long
that they've become distinct
Another monkey, the bonnet macaque
yet more mouths to join the fig feast
There's a glut of food,
but it won't last long
In just a few days,
the tree will be stripped
Bonnet macaques are choosy feeders,
the fig must be just right
What they reject, others accept
A lion-tail macaque
is equally selective
The wild boar welcomes
whatever falls from the high table
Rejected or dislodged,
there's a constant rain of figs from above
A barking deer joins the feast,
and that attracts something else
For a leopard,
a deer, pig or monkey distracted by figs
could be easy prey
It may tread softly,
but it's been spotted
Figs have certain well-known properties
and they work fast
As the hornbills fly,
they scatter fig seeds far and wide
most will come to nothing,
but a few will germinate and grow
Figs need hornbills
just as much as hornbills need figs
This is a strangling fig
it starts its life
high in the branches of another tree
A seed falls from above
lodges in the bark and germinates
As it grows,
it sends down strange aerial roots
Once they reach the ground,
the strangler grows fast
The roots grow thick and strong,
clasping the host in a deadly embrace
Little by little,
the host tree is starved of light
and nutrients until it dies
All fig trees have an unbelievably
fragile and delicate foundation
They are totally dependent
on a creature scarcely visible
to the naked eye, a wasp
Most of its short life
is spent inside a fig
The wingless brown males hatch first
they are followed by the black females
These too have wings
for they must fly to another fig tree
to lay their eggs
They are dragged from their pupae
by males desperate to mate
in the few hours of life
allotted to them
Before she leaves, each female
fills a special pocket with pollen
This will fertilize the developing fig
where she lays her eggs
The males have one last task
They bite a hole in the fig
to release the females
and then they die
The females depart
with their precious cargo of pollen,
guided perhaps by scent
they set off on an epic journey
to find another fig tree
of the same species
And that's the story in itself,
each of the 900 kinds of fig
has its very own pollinating wasp
From such tiny beginnings,
grow huge trees like this,
surely one of the most remarkable
partnerships between plants and animals
Fig trees give food and shelter
to all kinds of creatures, even tigers
And they are very special for people too
This may look like a forest,
but I'm standing under the shade
of one tree
It's the largest banyan tree in the world
It's a sacred tree,
but it's so large,
it's almost like a sacred grove
From all over India,
pilgrims flock to this holy tree
It's so vast,
it would cover 5 football pitches
Fig trees like the banyan and pipal
are worshiped throughout India
They've been revered
over thousands of years
The Buddha achieved enlightenment
under a pipal tree
The Hindus regard them
as the abode of their gods,
even the leaves
are looked upon as deities
If by mistake
you pick up a leaf from here
and take it home
You've got to boost it back rapidly,
otherwise you will attract
the fury of the gods
This incredible tree is like
a living open air cathedral
people even come here to get married
It bursts with life and ritual
yet I feel silenced
The object of all this reverence
has seen 5 centuries of history
and all because of a tiny wasp
Figs are indeed very special trees,
truly the linchpins of the forest
the strangler may not be holy
but it's still a gathering place
for animals
The scaffold of roots
enclose the space
where the host tree once stood
Its trunk has long since rotted away
A ready made climbing frame
for playful lion-tail macaques
The lattice work of stems
harbors plenty of insects,
even the occasional birds nest
It all helps to supplement
a diet of figs
Food and shelter,
somewhere to play and relax,
what more could a tree offer
In the highest reaches
of the western Ghats,
cloud-touched peaks
rise above the forest
These grassy islands in a sea of trees
have their own unique animals
Nilgiri tahr
their ancestors came from
the distant Himalayas
where other tahr still live,
some call them cloud goats
The hills rise to over 2500 metres,
Clouds condense and cool
around their peaks
watering the forest below
with 10 metres of rain a year
I'm in the land of the cloud goats,
we're both getting soaked in the rain
We are at one of the highest points
in southern India
and there is nothing higher
between us and the Himalayas
The clouds are sweeping in
from the southwest
and slowly they will envelop
the entire Indian subcontinent
They are the harbingers
of the Indian monsoon
And this is where they make their landfall
India's highest waterfall,
thunders from these rain drenched heights
The hill forests of southern India
receive a double dose of the monsoon
It rains here for six months of the year
Every thing gets drenched
but that is a small price to pay
for the benefits
There's enough rain for the forest
to stay green throughout the year
South across the sea from India
lies the island of Sri Lanka
Its Sinharaja forest thrives
on high and constant rainfall
There are more unique species here
than anywhere else on the subcontinent
Hump-nosed lizards
males assume their emerald hues
to intimidate other males
This drab male is a clear loser
More living jewels,
tiny jumping spiders
Sinharaja has dozens of different kinds,
most found only here
Close to the Equator,
constant warmth and wetness
provide the stability
that encourages diversity
Courting spiders semaphore
their amorous intentions
Each species has its own unique signals
The variety seems endless
This extraordinary creature is a spider,
but it's pretending to be an ant
perhaps it's safer in disguise
Like samurai warriors,
males circle and spar
Not a Halloween mask, but a caterpillar
If you look startling,
you stand a good chance of not being eaten
Large eyes are only bluff,
but bright colors
can signal genuine nastiness
Hairs and spines are another deterrent
These weaver ants will eat
a soft-bodied caterpillar alive
if they can get past
its bristly defences
The spines are poisonous,
they can cripple anything they pierce
and the caterpillar even has a shield
over its vulnerable head
The ants have given up,
but despite their defences,
the caterpillars are still at risk
A great hornbill has its own way
of dealing with those spines
A t? crashing on a branch, and
the caterpillar is stripped of its defences
Now it can be swallowed safely
Gaur, the biggest cows in the world
These massive wild ox
thrive in our monsoon forests
It's the rutting season
each bull brings
a ton of rippling muscle to the contest
Rivals flaunt their strength
and size one another up
Gaur maybe formidable,
but tigers do sometimes attack them
even the fully grown bull
This tiger won't be eating gaur today
but I've been to some forests where gaur
are on the top of the tiger menu
I hope one day I get a chance
to watch tiger attacking gaur
The cows will go to any length
to protect their calves
and see the tiger off
The land of the tiger
is also the land of the elephant
Elephants need even more living space
and perhaps more than any other animal
They epitomize the problems and paradoxes
of our relationship with the wild
100 years ago,
this was forest, elephant habitat
The British taste for tea
changed all that
Huge areas were cleared
to satisfy an alien thirst
But elephants still live in
the scattered forests that remain
They don't eat tea,
but they often use
the tea plantations as pathways
from one patch of forest to another
That can bring them into conflict
with people
Not just here, but all over India,
shrinking forests
force them out into the open
Crops are trampled,
houses destroyed, people killed
They even cause panic
on the outskirts of Calcutta
In other parts of the world,
large animals were killed off
our solution has been rather different
It's better to catch than kill
We've trained the elephant,
harnessed its power to our needs
Elephants are virtually married
to their keepers or mahouts,
almost part of the family
They even cook special food for them,
in elephant sized helpings
And elephant is much more
than a working animal
It's an object of veneration
Half a billion people worship Ganesh,
the elephant god
In our journey
through the land of the tiger,
we have seen how closely
the lives of man and animal
are interlinked
There is nothing more striking
than the relationship
between the wild caught elephant
and the mahout
This goes back 5000 years
and is passed down from father to son
In the West, Disney and the Jungle book
may have given you romantic notions
of Mowgli and the elephant
the reality is rather different
Elephants have long working lives,
but they don't come into their strength
until they are teens
So working elephants
are caught from the wild
We use tame elephants
to catch their wild cousins
The art of elephant catching
is thousands of years old
There were two ways of catching them
Driving whole herds
into massive timber stockades
or lassoing them
As machines take over our lives,
the role of the working elephant
has dwindled
Traditional techniques are now used
more to catch problem elephants
especially here in the northeast
where huge tracks of forest
have vanished forever
They've spotted a young male,
the chase is on
In the confusion of the chase,
a calf gets separated
He has to get the lasso pass the trunk
Incredibly, the captive hardly
seems to realize what's happened
He's reassured
by the tame elephants alongside
The fear and the pain will come later
It's now that the torture begins
The traditional ways
of breaking an elephant
are heartbreakingly cruel
It's tied up, spread-eagled for days
Separated from its mother and family,
its spirit is crushed
Even though millions
worship the elephant god
there are moments like this
when it's reduced to servitude
Ironically, this is a land
where man and nature
have enjoyed a harmony seldom seen
anywhere else in the world
Sadly that relationship
is now breaking down
And some of the connections
seem fated to be lost forever
The delicate fabric of myths,
legend and religious belief
woven together by centuries
of experience and wisdom
has been torn apart
From incredible torture and cruelty,
we move to love and worship
that sums up the great paradox
that is India
the beauty and the ugliness,
the tragedy and the hope
but I wonder whether this
will sustain the land of the tiger
for the next generation
drift above Indian forest
a forest that owes its life
to the onslaught of the monsoon
With Natrajan, an expert trekker
I've come here to look for
a very special animal
It's shy and elusive
Our search takes us
deep into the heart of the forest
This is a secret hidden world
you never know
what might be watching you
Hoping for an answer,
Natrajan mimics a quarry's call
And there they are,
the lions of the trees,
the lion-tail macaques
You can see how they got their name,
not just a tufted tail,
but a lion's mane too
They are one of the rarest of all monkeys
They are found only here
in southern India's monsoon forests
Unlike other macaques
they can't digest leaves
They live on ripe fruit,
seeds and insects,
with occasional bird's egg,
nestling or squirrel
that limits them
to the finest tracts of wet forest
where food is available all year round
There are 5000 kinds of flowering plant
in these forests,
but even so, fruit like this spiny durian
is always widely scattered
So it takes a lot of forest
to support a few lion-tail macaques
They live in small mobile groups
just 1 male with several females and young
much smaller than the troupes
of other macaques
Females don't give birth
until they are more than 6 years old
They only have an infant every 3 years
and perhaps only 4 in a lifetime
They are probably less than
4000 lion-tail macaques left
Over the last 2 centuries,
the wet forest of the Western Ghats
has been decimated by human populations
cut for firewood, cleared for plantations,
exploited by dams and hunted
The little forest that remains
is protected,
but it may be too late for the macaques
Wet forest once covered
almost the entire subcontinent,
a green pathway for the spread
of animals from other lands
But changes in climate and more recently
human influence now restricted
to Sri Lanka, the Western Ghats
and northeast India
When an island India
drifted across an ancient sea
to collide with Asia,
the first impact was in the east
Gibbons are one legacy of that collision
India's only ape came to us
from southeast Asia,
though it reached no further
than the northeast
They're sometimes called singing apes
Every morning,
the forest echoes to their calls
They are the acrobats of the trees,
a gibbon in full swing is the fastest
flightless animal in the canopy
Life for the gibbon
centers round the sunlit treetops
Forty metres down,
there's another world
In the shadowy depths of the forest floor,
there's not much vegetation,
so it's easy walking for elephants
When rainforest stretched unbroken,
across the length and breadth of India,
elephants spread
throughout the subcontinent
Today, the greatest numbers
are in the northeast and
the forests of the Western Ghats
The dry fragmented forests in between
support only scattered remnants
A king cobra basks in the sun
its bite could kill a baby elephant
This venomous reptile
reached India by the same
northeast passage as the gibbons
but it spread right to the southern
tip of the country
King cobras are the largest
of our poisonous snakes,
they can grow to five metres
big enough to stand up
and look you in the eye
Cobras kill thousands of people every year
yet they are one of our
most venerated animals
Naga, the snake god is rivaled in esteem
only by lord Ganesh, the elephant god
For us, much of the natural world is divine
These wet monsoon forests
are a paradise for creatures
that slither, crawl and hop
Of India's 205 species of amphibian,
120 are found in the forests
of Western Ghats
and new ones are still waiting
to be discovered
These flying frogs,
another eastern import
You never know
what you are going to find here
Water is the key to the infinite variety
of these forests
Moisture brings stability,
and the chance to specialize into
ever narrow niches and ways of life
This can lead to an arms race,
colors, more startling or subtle
to warn, camouflage and deceive
But even the best camouflage
doesn't always work
With the deadly aim of an archer,
a chameleon shoots its victim
with sticky tongue
If the slow and deliberate chameleon
is the tortoise on the trees
then this is the hare,
but it's a hare with the difference
Flying lizards,
the males flash to attract females
or perhaps intimidate other males
They can glide as much as 35 metres
Incredible, but the slow and steady chameleon
is just as remarkable in its own way
It will take a chameleon all day
to cover that distance
At this phase,
it won't frighten its quarry
Armed with only a cool head
and a firm grip,
another insect hunter pursues his prey
Smothering leaves are his only weapon
in this dangerous hunt
No high-tech climbing equipment,
just wooden pegs,
it makes me go weak at the knees
just to watch
A single slip could kill
It's 40 metres to the ground
This is an ancient skill,
handed down from father to son,
over countless generations
Forest people like this
were among the first wave of immigrants
to populate the subcontinent
That's what he is after,
a wild bees' nest
The smoke will help
to stupefy the bees
And this is what it's all about - honey
He only takes part of the honey comb,
leaving the rest for the bees
If he doesn't destroy the colony,
he can come back again and again
For the people of the forest,
this is liquid gold
Great pied hornbills,
they are as big as swans
These magnificent birds are fruit eaters
They relish figs
which make up most of their diet
Malabar great hornbills found
only in this south Indian forests
They are much smaller than the great pied
and they find the figs more of a challenge
Fig trees fruit throughout the year,
so there's always one fruiting
somewhere in the forest
That makes them the most vital of all trees,
a mecca for wildlife
Blossom-headed parakeets
green pigeons
tree pies
and exquisite fairy bluebirds
and not just birds, mammals too
There's a greater density of fig trees
in these forests
than anywhere else in the subcontinent
So many creatures depend on them
for survival
Fig trees are truly trees of life
Nilgiri langurs, unique to these forests
They are mainly leaf-eaters,
but they take figs too
And Malabar giant squirrels
they are related to
the Malayan giant squirrel
that spread into India
from the northeast
They've been isolated here so long
that they've become distinct
Another monkey, the bonnet macaque
yet more mouths to join the fig feast
There's a glut of food,
but it won't last long
In just a few days,
the tree will be stripped
Bonnet macaques are choosy feeders,
the fig must be just right
What they reject, others accept
A lion-tail macaque
is equally selective
The wild boar welcomes
whatever falls from the high table
Rejected or dislodged,
there's a constant rain of figs from above
A barking deer joins the feast,
and that attracts something else
For a leopard,
a deer, pig or monkey distracted by figs
could be easy prey
It may tread softly,
but it's been spotted
Figs have certain well-known properties
and they work fast
As the hornbills fly,
they scatter fig seeds far and wide
most will come to nothing,
but a few will germinate and grow
Figs need hornbills
just as much as hornbills need figs
This is a strangling fig
it starts its life
high in the branches of another tree
A seed falls from above
lodges in the bark and germinates
As it grows,
it sends down strange aerial roots
Once they reach the ground,
the strangler grows fast
The roots grow thick and strong,
clasping the host in a deadly embrace
Little by little,
the host tree is starved of light
and nutrients until it dies
All fig trees have an unbelievably
fragile and delicate foundation
They are totally dependent
on a creature scarcely visible
to the naked eye, a wasp
Most of its short life
is spent inside a fig
The wingless brown males hatch first
they are followed by the black females
These too have wings
for they must fly to another fig tree
to lay their eggs
They are dragged from their pupae
by males desperate to mate
in the few hours of life
allotted to them
Before she leaves, each female
fills a special pocket with pollen
This will fertilize the developing fig
where she lays her eggs
The males have one last task
They bite a hole in the fig
to release the females
and then they die
The females depart
with their precious cargo of pollen,
guided perhaps by scent
they set off on an epic journey
to find another fig tree
of the same species
And that's the story in itself,
each of the 900 kinds of fig
has its very own pollinating wasp
From such tiny beginnings,
grow huge trees like this,
surely one of the most remarkable
partnerships between plants and animals
Fig trees give food and shelter
to all kinds of creatures, even tigers
And they are very special for people too
This may look like a forest,
but I'm standing under the shade
of one tree
It's the largest banyan tree in the world
It's a sacred tree,
but it's so large,
it's almost like a sacred grove
From all over India,
pilgrims flock to this holy tree
It's so vast,
it would cover 5 football pitches
Fig trees like the banyan and pipal
are worshiped throughout India
They've been revered
over thousands of years
The Buddha achieved enlightenment
under a pipal tree
The Hindus regard them
as the abode of their gods,
even the leaves
are looked upon as deities
If by mistake
you pick up a leaf from here
and take it home
You've got to boost it back rapidly,
otherwise you will attract
the fury of the gods
This incredible tree is like
a living open air cathedral
people even come here to get married
It bursts with life and ritual
yet I feel silenced
The object of all this reverence
has seen 5 centuries of history
and all because of a tiny wasp
Figs are indeed very special trees,
truly the linchpins of the forest
the strangler may not be holy
but it's still a gathering place
for animals
The scaffold of roots
enclose the space
where the host tree once stood
Its trunk has long since rotted away
A ready made climbing frame
for playful lion-tail macaques
The lattice work of stems
harbors plenty of insects,
even the occasional birds nest
It all helps to supplement
a diet of figs
Food and shelter,
somewhere to play and relax,
what more could a tree offer
In the highest reaches
of the western Ghats,
cloud-touched peaks
rise above the forest
These grassy islands in a sea of trees
have their own unique animals
Nilgiri tahr
their ancestors came from
the distant Himalayas
where other tahr still live,
some call them cloud goats
The hills rise to over 2500 metres,
Clouds condense and cool
around their peaks
watering the forest below
with 10 metres of rain a year
I'm in the land of the cloud goats,
we're both getting soaked in the rain
We are at one of the highest points
in southern India
and there is nothing higher
between us and the Himalayas
The clouds are sweeping in
from the southwest
and slowly they will envelop
the entire Indian subcontinent
They are the harbingers
of the Indian monsoon
And this is where they make their landfall
India's highest waterfall,
thunders from these rain drenched heights
The hill forests of southern India
receive a double dose of the monsoon
It rains here for six months of the year
Every thing gets drenched
but that is a small price to pay
for the benefits
There's enough rain for the forest
to stay green throughout the year
South across the sea from India
lies the island of Sri Lanka
Its Sinharaja forest thrives
on high and constant rainfall
There are more unique species here
than anywhere else on the subcontinent
Hump-nosed lizards
males assume their emerald hues
to intimidate other males
This drab male is a clear loser
More living jewels,
tiny jumping spiders
Sinharaja has dozens of different kinds,
most found only here
Close to the Equator,
constant warmth and wetness
provide the stability
that encourages diversity
Courting spiders semaphore
their amorous intentions
Each species has its own unique signals
The variety seems endless
This extraordinary creature is a spider,
but it's pretending to be an ant
perhaps it's safer in disguise
Like samurai warriors,
males circle and spar
Not a Halloween mask, but a caterpillar
If you look startling,
you stand a good chance of not being eaten
Large eyes are only bluff,
but bright colors
can signal genuine nastiness
Hairs and spines are another deterrent
These weaver ants will eat
a soft-bodied caterpillar alive
if they can get past
its bristly defences
The spines are poisonous,
they can cripple anything they pierce
and the caterpillar even has a shield
over its vulnerable head
The ants have given up,
but despite their defences,
the caterpillars are still at risk
A great hornbill has its own way
of dealing with those spines
A t? crashing on a branch, and
the caterpillar is stripped of its defences
Now it can be swallowed safely
Gaur, the biggest cows in the world
These massive wild ox
thrive in our monsoon forests
It's the rutting season
each bull brings
a ton of rippling muscle to the contest
Rivals flaunt their strength
and size one another up
Gaur maybe formidable,
but tigers do sometimes attack them
even the fully grown bull
This tiger won't be eating gaur today
but I've been to some forests where gaur
are on the top of the tiger menu
I hope one day I get a chance
to watch tiger attacking gaur
The cows will go to any length
to protect their calves
and see the tiger off
The land of the tiger
is also the land of the elephant
Elephants need even more living space
and perhaps more than any other animal
They epitomize the problems and paradoxes
of our relationship with the wild
100 years ago,
this was forest, elephant habitat
The British taste for tea
changed all that
Huge areas were cleared
to satisfy an alien thirst
But elephants still live in
the scattered forests that remain
They don't eat tea,
but they often use
the tea plantations as pathways
from one patch of forest to another
That can bring them into conflict
with people
Not just here, but all over India,
shrinking forests
force them out into the open
Crops are trampled,
houses destroyed, people killed
They even cause panic
on the outskirts of Calcutta
In other parts of the world,
large animals were killed off
our solution has been rather different
It's better to catch than kill
We've trained the elephant,
harnessed its power to our needs
Elephants are virtually married
to their keepers or mahouts,
almost part of the family
They even cook special food for them,
in elephant sized helpings
And elephant is much more
than a working animal
It's an object of veneration
Half a billion people worship Ganesh,
the elephant god
In our journey
through the land of the tiger,
we have seen how closely
the lives of man and animal
are interlinked
There is nothing more striking
than the relationship
between the wild caught elephant
and the mahout
This goes back 5000 years
and is passed down from father to son
In the West, Disney and the Jungle book
may have given you romantic notions
of Mowgli and the elephant
the reality is rather different
Elephants have long working lives,
but they don't come into their strength
until they are teens
So working elephants
are caught from the wild
We use tame elephants
to catch their wild cousins
The art of elephant catching
is thousands of years old
There were two ways of catching them
Driving whole herds
into massive timber stockades
or lassoing them
As machines take over our lives,
the role of the working elephant
has dwindled
Traditional techniques are now used
more to catch problem elephants
especially here in the northeast
where huge tracks of forest
have vanished forever
They've spotted a young male,
the chase is on
In the confusion of the chase,
a calf gets separated
He has to get the lasso pass the trunk
Incredibly, the captive hardly
seems to realize what's happened
He's reassured
by the tame elephants alongside
The fear and the pain will come later
It's now that the torture begins
The traditional ways
of breaking an elephant
are heartbreakingly cruel
It's tied up, spread-eagled for days
Separated from its mother and family,
its spirit is crushed
Even though millions
worship the elephant god
there are moments like this
when it's reduced to servitude
Ironically, this is a land
where man and nature
have enjoyed a harmony seldom seen
anywhere else in the world
Sadly that relationship
is now breaking down
And some of the connections
seem fated to be lost forever
The delicate fabric of myths,
legend and religious belief
woven together by centuries
of experience and wisdom
has been torn apart
From incredible torture and cruelty,
we move to love and worship
that sums up the great paradox
that is India
the beauty and the ugliness,
the tragedy and the hope
but I wonder whether this
will sustain the land of the tiger
for the next generation